Dusk Sets
by Darkblur
Summary: Eggman has created a new foe for Sonic. Only thing is that this one is different from his other creations, this one is alive. But is she really bad? Amy/Sonic OC/Shadow
1. Finding a Small Secret

Here's another Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic coming from me. Unlike the others I've written, this one is an actual story, has something of a plot, and everything else a story needs. One of the things I need to say is about Sonic's Universe. With all of the alternate dimensions and what-not, I'm saying right now that Humans and Mobians live together on Earth and cities that appear within this story are from the Sonic Video Games only unless otherwise stated. As for the character list, it'll stay secret for now.

Anyways, a couple days before this story starts, Eggman's plan had once again been destroyed by Sonic and co. Not one to take defeat lightly Eggman has been fuming since then, unable to let go of this defeat. And now with the Disclaimer: I do not own any Sonic the Hedgehog characters, objects, or locations save a few that will be introduced later, the story can begin.

Chapter 1 Finding a Small Secret

Eggman is sitting in front of the main computer terminal of his base, silently releasing a barrage of curses in his head at that heroic blue hedgehog and his gang. Sonic and his friends had recently destroyed one of his greatest creations and took his two Chaos Emeralds and his only Sol Emerald at the same time, giving them a total of seven (four Chaos and three Sol) of the fourteen Emeralds and him a big fat zero.

His hard work being destroyed was bad enough, but losing three of his hard stolen Emeralds to Sonic was rubbing salt into the wound. Eggman had to admit, it was a little ambitious attacking Blaze's estate with one robot and hoping to succeed, but considering the robot _was _powered by all three emeralds Eggman thought he had a good chance. Leave it to Sonic and Blaze to destroy his super-robot and snatch the emeralds at the same second.

The fight was a couple days ago, but Eggman had hardly moved from the seat in front of his computer, busily looking over the files for anything that could be of use to him. His two assistants, a short silvery robot named Bocoe and a tall gold one named Decoe were silently watching him from behind.

"What exactly do you think he is doing?" Bocoe asked his friend quietly.

"I don't know Bocoe, he's hardly moved from that spot since his defeat a few days ago. Perhaps he is planning the construction of a new robot?" Decoe answered just as quietly. Bocoe shrugged.

Eggman could hear them, but took no notice of his robotic helpers. He was far too mad at Sonic and wanted to find some way of beating him. Eggman was busy pouring over his computer records for inspiration. _Hmm...Metal Sonic records, no I'd rather not risk having another robot turn traitor on me...Death Egg schematics, nah it would take too long...Hmm, those old Project SHADOW records I swiped from GUN, perhaps there is a small trinket of information that will reveal a weakness in Shadow the Hedgehog._ The mad scientist ponders while opening the files.

Eggman re-reads those files in their entirety, from the beginning paragraphs where his grandfather described the early works of the project to the creation of the Biolizard to Black Doom's assistance in creating Shadow to the conclusion. It seems like a fruitless search, until Eggman comes across a section in the conclusion...

"_My greatest project is now a success. With the creation of Shadow, we have created the Ultimate Life Form. Already the next project beyond Project SHADOW has started, and it should benefit mankind and Mobians even more._"

"Hmm, so after Shadow was created grandfather was already working on another project. Perhaps the files from that project are still within the ARK's supercomputer." Eggman mumbles to himself before getting up. He turns and walks off to some other part of his base, ignoring the cowering nervous robots that were spying on him a couple minutes ago.

"Where is he going?" Bocoe asked in confusion, "Isn't he mad at us for spying on him?"

"I don't know. Sometimes it is so hard to tell what he is going to do." Decoe responded.

A few hours pass and both Decoe and Bocoe are maintaining some of the robots in Eggman's armory. They hear some large robotic footsteps behind them and turn to see Eggman in his old Eggwalker (the robot he uses from Sonic Adventure 2).

"Doctor Eggman, what are you doing?" Decoe asks his boss.

"I'll be leaving on a research trip to the Space Colony ARK, until I return I'm trusting the both of you with this base." Eggman says from atop his walker, "Monitor the news. If they report anything about a Chaos or Sol Emerald send a robot to go and retrieve it. Understood?"

Both the gold and silver robots nod. "Yes doctor, but we do not know what your robots are. How can we select the right one?" Bocoe asks.

Eggman pulls a bit of a sour face. "I expected as much. Here..." he mumbles and tosses a small manual towards the robots. It comically lands over Bocoe's face, causing him to flail a little before it falls off. "The first page has instructions on how to launch a robot while the others have a picture of the robot and a description of it. I'm going to leave now. Don't fail me." His large machine marches off, leaving Decoe and Bocoe to begin studying.


	2. The Next Project

Chapter 2 The Next Project

Eggman's walker lands noisily in an empty hallway of the ARK. The only light came from the headlight in his robot, and the place seemed to have returned to its abandoned status. "Hmm, it would appear that I am alone aboard this place." he mumbles, "Good. Now lets see if I remember where the computer room is." his machine begins walking off through the dark corridors of the space colony.

* * *

Back on Earth, inside Eggman's base, Decoe and Bocoe are reading over the manual and testing each other on the robots strengths and weaknesses.

"Wow, Doctor Eggman has really outdone himself with this line of robots. The stats of some of these machines are simply amazing!" Decoe remarks upon seeing a raptor-like robot in the book.

"Indeed, even though this book is supposed to help us pick, now it seems harder with all of these great robots." Bocoe adds.

"HI!" A voice from behind the two robots yells, causing them to jump and yell. The spin around to see a small creature hovering there thanks to his jet-pack.

"Bokkun, what have we told you about sneaking up on us?" Decoe scolds.

"Aww, I just wanted to see what you guys were doing..." The little...thing...mumbles sadly.

"We are looking over this manual Doctor Eggman gave us on his new robot line, in case an emerald should reveal itself while he's gone." Bocoe explains.

"Really? Is there any way I could help?"

Decoe and Bocoe think for a second, then Decoe says "Alright, Bokkun. Go and watch the news. If they report anything that sounds like a Chaos or Sol Emerald, alert us immediately."

Bokkun's face falls. "But the news is so bor-ring.", he whines.

"If you do find an emerald and we capture it, Eggman will be pleased with you." Bocoe says.

The little guy's face brightens and he flies off towards his room, yelling, "I'm going to go watch the news now!" as he disappears down the hallway.

"Do you really think that Eggman will be pleased with us?" Decoe asks his counterpart.

"If we find evidence of an Emerald's location he will, but I'm sure that if we actually grab one he'll be ecstatic!" Bocoe says optimistically. The two robots sigh at the thought of Eggman rewarding them, then go back to studying.

* * *

Eggman wasn't sharing his robots happy attitude. He had managed to find the observation deck, but no matter what path he followed he always wound up back on the observation deck. To make things worse, the map he had of the ARK's labyrinth-like passageways was incredibly hard to read on the small screen in his Eggwalker.

"Argh! Why can't I remember where that blasted computer room is?!" Eggman yells out in frustration while wandering down another dark corridor. "Grr...why didn't I install a larger screen on this machine?" he mumbles while trying to figure out where he is within the 3-D maze known as Space Colony ARK.

Eggman continues his wandering within the colony and (by pure luck) he finds the computer room. "Finally! Now then..." he says while marching his machine up to the console before getting out. "Lets see if I can't figure out what that project is..." he mumbles while accessing the data files.

* * *

"Well Bocoe, I believe we have memorized all of the robots in Eggman's new line. Now all we have to do is wait for an emerald to appear." No sooner does the gold robot say that, then Bokkun comes bursting in.

"Guys guess what! A Sol Emerald has been found!" He yells from up in the air.

"What?!" Both of the robots yell, "Where is it?"

"We have to hurry, its being transported to Princess Blaze's palace under armored car and guard right now! They didn't say where it was, but we have to hurry before they get another!" Bokkun yells out in excitement.

"Which robot should we use?" Bocoe asks.

"The Egg-Ptera launches the fastest." Decoe responds.

"Good idea." The silver robots says before the two of them hurry off to launch the robot and follow it in Eggman's chair. In a couple of minutes, a large silver and red robotic pteranodon is soaring towards Blaze's palace with a small floating chair following behind.

* * *

"Hmm, lets see, ah...here's my grandfather's files." Eggman mumbles while looking around in the computer's memory.He double clicks the folder and a small window appears. "Enter password, ma-ri-a." He types in the password and the computers displays his grandfather's files.

"Lots of things on Project SHADOW, but I don't...aha! There you are." Eggman says when he spots his target. _Hmm...Project Neo-DUSK? This has to be what my grandfather mentioned in the conclusion of Project SHADOW._Eggman double-clicks on this mystery folder.

"_Please enter password..._"

"Another password? Oh well." Eggman re-types 'maria' into the computer, but gets a surprising result.

"_Access denied. Please enter password..._"

"What?! Maria isn't the password for this folder? Hmm...well then, what could this password be?" he mumbles. Eggman tries many passwords, including 'Gerald', 'Robotnik', 'ARK', and even 'password'. Each time the computer rejects it.

Eggman is getting really mad now, with each failure, its harder for him to resist the urge to smash the console. Finally he lets out a yell in frustration and kicks the bottom of the console, then yells in pain. "Grr...what could this...wait. I read about this project in Project SHADOW, so maybe..." this time he types in 'shadow'.

"_Access granted._" Is what the screen displays before displaying three files.

"That's it? Even though GUN shut this place down shortly after the completion of Project SHADOW, I thought there might have been more then this. Oh well lets see...I'll start here." Eggman mumbles while clicking on a file named, 'Project History'.

"_My first great research project is a success. The Special Hyper Advanced Dimensional Organic Weapon Project or Project SHADOW seemed to be an impossible dream at first. Using our techniques we produced a prototype of the Ultimate Life Form called the Biolizard. At first it seemed promising, but the creature soon developed a ferocious nature and had to be sealed into cyrogenic suspension. Just when my beloved project was about to die, I met Black Doom. Thanks to his DNA and an agreement we made, I was able to create the true Ultimate Life Form...Shadow the Hedgehog._

_After Shadow was created, I began plans for a new research project. Intrigued at how alien DNA can be spliced into that of a Mobian's...I began wondering what else could be created through the manipulation of the genetic code. The successor to Project SHADOW would be the Neo DNA Using Sophisticated Karyokinesis Project...Project Neo-DUSK._

_Due to Project SHADOW, we had the genetic code for the Mobian Hedgehog mapped out and the data stored in the ARK's supercomputer. Deciding to build off of what we have, our researchers set to work on manipulating the DNA for the Mobian Hedgehog and attempting to grow an embryo from the modified DNA that we built from scratch. We went through a couple experiments, but the cells refused to begin duplicating...despite attempting to mimic the procedures that Black Doom used._

_Sadly...only a couple of attempts could be tried with Project Neo-DUSK. Before work on the project could truly reach full swing, GUN began their assault on the ARK. During their attack I got separated from Shadow and my beloved grandaughter, Maria. Now I have locked myself in the ARK's computer room and are documenting this incomplete project in the hopes that some future scientist will find these files and take over from were we left off. In addition to this history of Project Neo-DUSK, I have __included the files that hold the DNA map for Mobian Hedgehogs and the attempted genetic sequences that failed._

_While Project SHADOW was a military project meant to protect all humans and Mobians, Project Neo-DUSK is meant to peacefully help all of the species on Earth. By understanding the genetic code and being able to re-write it, Project Neo-DUSK will remove many diseases and illnesses from existence and pave the way to a better tomorrow._

_Prof. Gerald Robotnik_"

"Hmm, interesting." Eggman mumbles while stroking his moustache, "Quite an interesting idea. Creating an artificial being from artificial DNA...this is amazing. Perhaps this is what I need to conquer the world, a living being that can react to its surroundings..." he tries to access the other two files, and the DNA map file opens, but the last file was corrupted. "Drats, looks like I must start from square one..." Just as he says that an idea forms, "...or maybe not..." he says before he laughing evilly.

* * *

"Where is that convoy?" Decoe asked while looking over the side of the chair. "Eggman will be furious with us we let another emerald fall into Sonic's hands."

"I am checking the radar, but there is no...wait! I have found it!" Bocoe yells. "Egg Ptera! Veer left 20 degrees so we can intercept!" The large pteranodon screeches then follows Bocoe's orders.

Meanwhile, on a highway about 50 miles away an armored car is driving down the center lane with two armed guards in the front seats, four in the back with the emerald, and one outside in a ceiling turret. Surrounding the armored car are four special motorcycles with a driver and one armed guard riding back-to-back style.

"So, do you think Princess Blaze will enjoy having another Sol Emerald?" One of the guards in the back of the car asks a fellow guard.

"I think she'll be happy enough that another one of her precious Sol Emeralds is going to be safe at her palace." The second guard responds. Suddenly all of the guards are jostled as the armored car comes to a screeching halt. "Alright men move move move!" The commander yells from the front seat. All of the soldiers grab their guns and leap out of the car to see the Egg Ptera standing in the road.

"All men open fire!" the commander yells and all of the troops begin firing at the robot, but are causing no damage.

"Halt your fire!" Decoe yells down at the troops, "This robot's armor is impenetrable!"

"That's right, and with this robot's firepower you might as well just hand over that Sol Emerald." Bocoe adds.

"Do your worst!" The commander yells before signaling for the turret gunner to fire. The turret aims and fires off a rocket. It hits the Egg Ptera, but does little beyond scuffing the paint.

"Indeed we will! Egg Ptera open fire!" Bocoe orders. The Egg Ptera screeches and begins firing its chest turrets at the troops, causing them to scatter.

"Excellent work Egg Ptera. Keep those soldiers away from us while we take the Emerald." The robot screeches again and continues its attack on the troops. The chair quickly maneuvers through the gunfire and down to the armored car. Decoe presses a button and fires a missile, blowing a hole through the armor. Inside the ruined the car sat the light blue Sol Emerald.

"Hurry Decoe, get out and grab the Emerald." The silver robot says.

"What? Why me?" Decoe asks. "Why don't you get out and grab it?"

"Because, you're the faster one of us. Sprint over to the Emerald, snag it and run back here." Bocoe argues back.

"Alright, but you owe me." Decoe says. He jumps out of the chair, and sprints over to the Sol Emerald, spins on his heel and hurries back to the chair. Decoe jumps up and grabs one of the wings while tossing the emerald into the cockpit. "Hurry Bocoe, get us out of here."

"Don't need to tell me twice." Bocoe says before turning the chair around and flying away. "Egg Ptera! Return to base!" The robotic pteranodon flaps its wings and flies after its master's chair.

Decoe manages to squirm back into the seat and holds up the Sol Emerald they stole. "Ah, this will truly make Eggman pleased." he says proudly.

**Just in case you're confused about the Neo-DUSK acronym (which is probably true), 'karokinesis' is the division of a cell's nucleus while the cell is dividing. I needed a 'k' word that had something relating to DNA and that was close enough. For the Project SHADOW acronym, I'm pretty sure I've seen that somewhere as the 'official' one. Anyway, feel free to review! Just no flames or bashes, alright?**


	3. Preparing the New Plan

Chapter 3 Preparing the New Plan

About five minutes after Decoe, Bocoe, and the Egg Ptera returned to base, Eggman came marching in atop his Eggwalker.

"Oh doctor. Guess what we have..." Decoe says slyly.

"Unless its a Chaos Emerald I don't care." Eggman says gruffly.

"Well, its the next best thing." Bocoe says. Eggman turns around and a large smile comes across his face upon seeing the Sol Emerald in his robot's hands.

"How did you two get a Sol Emerald?" he says while taking the glittering blue gem.

"Bokkun heard about a Sol Emerald being transported to Blaze's castle on the news, so we took your chair and the Egg Ptera to retrieve it. We managed to take it before Sonic or one of his friends showed up." Decoe explained.

"Hmm...I would've preferred to have stolen one of Sonic's emeralds, but at least now I have something that can power my next invention...I'll just need a few more components." Eggman mumbled. "If you two will excuse me, I need to go and...prepare for my latest weapon." He says before walking away in his machine.

"What do you think he means by 'prepare'?" Decoe asks.

Bocoe shrugs, "What preparations does another robot need?"

A couple hours go by before Eggman returns (albeit on foot). "Decoe, Bocoe. Attention!" Eggman yells. Immediately his assistants sped to him.

"Yes doctor?" They both ask eagerly.

"Due to the recent success of your capturing of a Sol Emerald, I have decided that for our next mission I will entrust the two of you with a very important target. And I will allow you to use a new creation, the Egg Arachnid."

"Alright doctor, we will perform to the best of our capabilities." Decoe says with a salute.

"Good, now then. Your target is the Biolab facility outside of Megalo City. When you get there, steal this." Eggman continues and hands them a small slip of paper. Bocoe takes it and looks it over.

"Hmm, carbon-gel? Aren't you building another robot?" the silver robot asks confusedly.

"You'll see." Eggman says while the light glints oddly off his sunglasses. "Meanwhile I will be gathering the most important piece." Before his assistants could ask what that piece is, Eggman hurries off to his chair and floats away.

"Hmm, well Bocoe. We might as well go get what Eggman wants." Decoe says before the two of them walk off to the robot bay. They find the Egg Arachnid (an enormous red and black mechanical spider) and take the controls. The large robot marches out of the base and towards the nearby Biolab facility.

After about ten minutes of walking, the facility comes into view. The biolab facility is basically a large laboratory surrounded with a barbed wire fence and armed guards. Why? The facility was essentially a bio-hazard to everything. Inside was where genetic work was done, which sometimes created some rather dangerous things...namely uber-hard-to-kill bacteria.

"Do you think we will make it?" Decoe asks.

"If the armor on this thing is as strong as the Egg Ptera's, we will be fine. Do you want to smash through the fence or step over it?" Bocoe asks.

"Let's step over it, it should serve as a deterrent to Sonic and the others." Decoe says.

Once the robot gets close enough, the guards begin firing away. Like before, the shots aren't doing a thing to the robot, and it easily steps over the fence and continues marching for the building. Manipulating the front left leg, Bocoe smashes a large hole in the side of the wall.

"Releasing the mini-spiders." Decoe says while flipping a switch. A small hatch on the bottom of the thorax opens and several smaller spiders begin jumping out. Most of them begin fighting the guards, keeping them away from the larger spider, but two of them scurry into the building. Those were controlled by Decoe and Bocoe, and were looking for what Eggman needed.

The two spiders wander around the facility for about fifteen minutes before they find the lab that held the gel. Bocoe's spider smashed through the door and kept the scientists at bay while Decoe's stored a canister of the gel in its abdomin. Once the canister was taken the two spiders returned to the main one where they all re-entered it.

The guards were still firing at the Egg-Arachnid while it turned around and marched back towards the base.

They return successfully with the materials, and a couple seconds afterwards Eggman returns as well.

"Hello doctor. We have the gel you wanted. Will you tell us what the component is that you took?" Decoe asks.

"Very well." He holds out his hand. In his palm rested a small test tube, which appeared to be empty.

"What is it?" Bocoe asks.

"Simple. Hair."

"Hair?" Both robots ask blankly.

"Yes, but not just any hair. Its a few strands of Amy's hair."

"Amy? You mean Amy Rose?" Bocoe asks.

"How did you accomplish that?" Decoe asks.

"That's my little secret. Now then...where is the gel canister?" He demands more then asks. The spider that held the canister walked over to Eggman and handed the material over.

"Good." He mutters with a hint of a smile. "Now I'm off to begin work on my next creation. Decoe, Bocoe, begin watching for more emeralds. If and only if one shows up are you to disturb me." He says very seriously, "Otherwise, nothing should bother me. Got it?" he asks in a near-Shadow like tone.

Both robots are now shaking in fright, "Got it." Eggman turns his chair around and floats away, leaving his assistants very shaken. Before doing anything else, Decoe and Bocoe hurry off to find Bokkun and give him the same message.

Meanwhile, Eggman had basically sealed himself into one of his labs. Inside with him was a high-powered microscope, several machines that allowed him to manipulate cells and DNA, and one of his cryo-tubes (that thing that held Shadow in Sonic Heroes). Beside the tube was a large computer that served as a life support system for what Eggman was planning.

He took one of the strands of Amy's hair, and placed it under his microscope. He located and removed a cell that held an intact nucleus and zoomed in to view the chromosones. _Hmm...where are you...where are...ah! _He thinks after finding the section he wanted.

Slowly and carefully Eggman begins modifying Amy's DNA. The whole process for one chromosome takes him about half-an-hour. He started at about 5:30 PM, and it took him to nearly 1:00 AM to finish.

"Finally!" He exclaims while moving away from the microscope. Eggman takes a dollop of the carbon-gel, carefully transfers the cell into it, and then places the gel into the cryo-tube. He sets the life-support to both sustain and accelerate the aging process. Finally Eggman sets his Sol Emerald into the machine to provide the necessary power.

Observing his machine with pride, Eggman lets out a triumphant sigh. He peers in through the window at the small mass of gel floating in the green liquid. "In a couple of days you will have grown into my first living creation. And Sonic will fall." Eggman leaves the machine to run and heads for bed.


	4. The Birth of Dusk

Chapter 4 The Birth of Dusk

Eggman checks on his tank periodically throughout the following days. Each time he comes in, his sees his creation has slowly grown and mature more and more.

About four days after Eggman began his experiment the time came to open the pod. Eggman let out a satisfied smile as he approached the tank and looked in through the window. What was once a glop of gel had grown into a teenaged, female, mobian hedgehog. "Ah! It worked! Now I just need to release her."

"Release who?" A voice from behind him asks. Eggman yells and spins around to see Decoe and Bocoe standing there.

"Who are you releasing?" Decoe asks.

"Alright, I suppose the time has come to let you in on my plan. Just take a look." Eggman says while moving out of the way. Both robots gasp when they see a female mobian hedgehog floating inside of the machine. "That's what I needed the carbon gel for. I took Amy's DNA and altered it to produce her. The gel acted as a fertilizer of sorts, encouraging the main cell to grow into a full being."

"But why create a living being doctor?" Bocoe asks, "Why not just build another robot?"

"That's the beauty of it. You see, inspired by my grandfather's incomplete work of Project Neo-DUSK, I decided to create her. Sonic and his friends would never suspect a fellow Mobian to be allied with me. And to top it all off, she can react to situations in unpredictable ways...unlike machines which must follow their programming...save those ungrateful traitors Metal Sonic, E-102 Gamma, and E-123 Omega."

"Why a female? Why not make a Sonic?" Decoe asks.

"The gender is a result of using Amy's DNA, but I modified it so that my creation has a special power all to herself, and out of the hedgehogs she was the easiest target. No more questions, Bocoe go fetch a towel, Decoe get ready to catch her when I empty the tank." Both robots salute and run to do their assigned jobs.

Decoe stands in front of the tank with his arms out, ready to catch the hedgehog when Eggman opens the tank. Eggman moves over to a console and presses a couple buttons. A whirring noise is heard as the tank drains its liquid. As the tank empties, she stands for a second before falling limply against the tank wall.

"Ready?" The gold robot nods. Eggman flips a switch and the front of the tank swings upwards, causing the hedgehog to land in Decoe's arms. A couple seconds after Decoe catches her, Bocoe comes running in with a towel.

Eggman takes the and gently wraps it around the shadowy-purple hedgehog's body. "Help her over to a chair, gently now." he instructs. Decoe and Bocoe do as they're told and set the still-limp hedgehog in a sturdy chair.

"Come on. Time to wake up now." Decoe whispers while patting her cheek. The hedgehog groans and opens her eyes to reveal dark-blue irises. (Her left one was partially covered by a quill that went from forehead height to halfway down her cheek. The rest of them hung down from her head, but instead of curling towards her head like Amy's did, they slightly curled away.)

"What...huh?" she mumbles.

"Easy dear." Eggman says softly while walking forward and placing an index finger under her chin, "Don't worry everything will be okay."

"Uhh...who are you?" she asks.

"My name is Dr. Eggman." he says gently.

"Dr...Eggman?" She repeats.

Eggman nods, "I am the world's greatest scientist and its my goal to try and bring peace and goodness to the people of this world. But I never succeed..."

She seems to wake up a little-bit more and asks, "But if you want to do good...why don't you succeed? Shouldn't people want that?"

"They do, but whenever I try to do something that evil hedgehog Sonic and his accomplices come and stop me."

"Really?"

Eggman nods, "That Sonic is nothing but pure evil. He's always breaking my machines and causing trouble. But I'll explain more later, come." He helps her out of the chair and leads her down a hallway. Decoe and Bocoe follow.

Eventually the foursome came to a doorway that Eggman opened. As the doors slid aside, a large and slightly posh bedroom was on the other side. "Here's your room." He says to the hedgehog. "There's a set of clothes on the bed, we can talk after you change." She smiles at him and walks in, allowing the doors to slide shut behind her.

"Doctor Eggman, how does that girl know so much? Shouldn't she be like a newborn?" Decoe asks.

"You'd think so, but thanks to the machine her brain developed along with her body. She's at the same cognitive level as Amy Rose, but doesn't know who's good or bad." Eggman explains quietly.

"Why not?" Bocoe asks.

"Well...I don't know how to that." Eggman mumbles in embarrassment, "But if explain things to her in just the right way...she'll believe that I'm the good guy and Sonic's the bad one."

A couple seconds later, she comes out. Fully dressed in a near-black T-shirt with a dark-silver stripe up the sides, pants with an identical color scheme, and the usual pair of white gloves. She looked very nice.

"Aah, good. The clothes I sto...bought...for you fit." Eggman says, "Come now my dear, allow me to explain everything." the foursome once again depart for another room in the base.

In a couple minutes they're in another new room. This one had a square rug on the floor, a small tea-table sat in the middle of it with a complete tea-set on top, and four chairs around it. Eggman sat down in one of the chairs, Decoe and Bocoe on both sides, and the hedgehog across from him.

Decoe and Bocoe poured two cups of tea and handed one to Eggman and one to the hedgehog. As she takes a sip Eggman proceeds to explain things in his version. It takes about twenty minutes for him to explain things.

"So, let me get this straight...You are the world's greatest scientist, and are trying to make the world a better place. However Sonic and his accomplices destroy your inventions and prevent you from helping people. You created me from the DNA of one of his allies to stop Sonic so that you can finally succeed and help people." she sums.

"Correct." the doctor says with a slight nod.

"But, if they are as strong as you say...how am I supposed to beat them?" she asks.

"Ah, that is one of the things I've planned for." Eggman says, "When I was modifying the DNA, I gave you a special power that should allow you to beat them. As for keeping up with Sonic and his friends..." Eggman pulls a small box out from under the table and hands it to her, "You'll need these."

She sets her cup and plate down and takes the box, opening it to find a pair of shoes inside. The upper half of them were a midnight blue, there was a thin glass-like layer underneath that glowed a shadowy-purple, and beneath that another layer of the glass that was pure black that had a shallow indent in the middle and a light-blue glowing ring on both of the raised parts.

"These are?" she asks while removing them from the box.

"They're called Extreme Gear, and they allow the riders to go at high speeds. This particular pair was built by me for you to use. You can walk around in them, but start running and they'll activate at a certain speed. Once they activate you can perform a skating motion that will propel you forward at a faster speed." Eggman explains while she puts them on.

"Hmm...not a bad fit." She says while admiring them.

"Great doctor, now with a little practice she should be ready to bring down Sonic!" Decoe exclaims.

"Yes, but she needs a name first..." Bocoe states.

Eggman places a hand under his chin, "Oh darn, I forgot to name her. Well...come on you two let's hear some suggestions."

"Umm...Shirly?" Decoe suggests.

"How about Heather?" Bocoe tries.

"What was that project called that inspired you to create me? Something like Project Neo-DUSK?" the hedgehog asks Eggman.

"That's it."

"Hmm...I like that name, Dusk." she says.

"Ooh...Dusk. That definitely fits her." Decoe says.

"Agreed, that sounds much better then the other names we tried." Bocoe agrees.

"Even I like that name. Alright then...Dusk come along, you need to practice so you can beat Sonic." Eggman says while standing and leaving, with Dusk and the robots following.

**Well? What do you think so far? I should probably re-write the disclaimer now, I do not own Sonic or any related characters apart from Dusk. A little more about Dusk will be revealed in the next chapter, in case any of you are curious about what her 'special power' is.**


	5. Learning the Basics

Chapter 5 Learning the Basics

Eggman led Dusk, Decoe, and Bocoe into the callibration room. Normally this room would be used for fine-tuning his robots, but because of its large size and various testing capabilities, Eggman figured this would be good enough until a proper training facility was built.

The room had very high ceilings to accommodate the flying robots, bullseyes for accuracy practice, a banked track for speed practice, and various terrain areas for testing mobility (such as ice, loose sand, rocky surfaces, and the like). It was a little awkward training a Mobian in a room that was normally used for larger robots, but it was all he had.

"So...what should I practice first?" Dusk asked while looking around the large room.

"First I think you should get used to the skating motion for your Extreme Gear." Eggman replies. "Over there is a track for you to practice on." he says while pointing at the banked track. Dusk walks over to the track and stands on one of the straightaways.

"What did you say I had to do for the skates to activate?" she asks.

"Just run fast enough and then start skating when they turn on." Eggman says. "You can begin the light turns green."

Dusk didn't quite know what 'turn on' meant, but she'd probably find out soon enough. With Eggman and his robots manning a nearby console, Dusk watched the light. It glowed red, then yellow, and turned green with a loud beep.

When she heard the beep, Dusk began running forward as quickly as she could. About halfway to the first turn, the skates activated and lifted her up into the air. Unfortunately, she wasn't expecting that, lost her balance, and fell.

"Dusk!" Decoe yelled as he and his silver counterpart ran to the hedgehog's side. She groaned a little as the robots helped her up.

"Are you okay?" Bocoe asked.

"Yea...I just, didn't expect theses skates to actually lift me up. Now I know what to expect." Dusk mumbles while returning to the starting spot.

"Sorry Dusk, I probably should've been more specific." Eggman admits.

"Even if you did tell me, I doubt that would've changed anything." Dusk replies, "I'm ready now."

Decoe and Bocoe get off of the track and return to the console with Eggman. The green light shines again, and Dusk starts running again. The skates lift her up and this time she keeps her balance. Dusk begins performing a (rather sloppy) skating motion and manages to go a little ways while floating, but isn't really acceralating. The skates deactivate and Dusk falls over again.

"I don't think I know quite what the motion is...if you could explain it a little bit better." She says while standing.

"Well...its a...skating motion. You need to steadily swing your legs back and forth, and get your hips into the motion as well. Longer strokes, not rapid swings." Eggman instructs.

Dusk doesn't quite seem to understand, but (regardless) tries again. She starts running again and starts the skates up, this time doing a longer swing of the leg and a slight hip swing. Now she's moving forward faster and faster. Dusk slowly gets better and better at maintaining the skate rythem as she rounds the first bank and by the second, she seems to have it down.

"Eggman look! I'm doing it!" Dusk yells as she flies past the console and towards the first bank again. Steadily she goes faster and faster around the track until she's leaving a purple streak behind her.

"Excellent work Dusk, now you should slow down." Eggman says while watching her go past.

"Why? I'm having fun!" She yells back.

"Well...this track really isn't meant for the speeds you're going at. Keep this up and there's a chance that you could hurt yourself." Eggman says.

"Alright..." Dusk says rather sadly and begins to slow down. Eventually she coasts to a stop and lands softly on her skates again. "I know how to skate know, so what's next?"

"Over this way." Eggman answers and guides her over to one of the corners of the room. There are several slots in the ground and several on the walls, but otherwise this is an empty corner.

"What's over here?" Dusk asks.

"This is where you can practice your powers." Eggman replies.

"Which are?"

"Umbrakinesis." Dusk gives Eggman a blank look, "You can manipulate shadows."

"Cool...but how?" Dusk asks.

Eggman shrugs, "I can't do it, so I don't know how it works or what you can do."

"Well...that doesn't help." Dusk replies, "Do you have any ideas on how to work it?"

"Most likely you can control the shadows with your will. Try imagining your shadow doing something." Eggman suggests.

"Maybe I can lift it." Dusk tries to imagine her shadow lifting off the ground, but it stays firmly in place. After a couple minutes of unsuccessful trying, Dusk admits defeat. "Do you guys have any idea of what to do?"

Eggman and Decoe shake their heads, but Bocoe gives a response. "Maybe you could expand your shadow."

"Hmm...maybe." Dusk imagines her shadow as a square. Again nothing happens. "Any other ideas?" she asks.

"Blaze and Silver use their hands, perhaps that is what you need to do." Decoe suggests. Dusk shrugs and aims her palm at her shadow, and re-imagines it forming into a square. This time something does happen.

Dusk's hand gets surrounded with a strange black aura. Her shadow deepens in color to pitch-black and it changes shape into a square.

"You did it!" Decoe exclaims happily.

"I wonder what else I can do with this." Dusk mumbles. She slowly lifts her hand and a strange, tentacle-like object grows out of her shadow, leaving Eggman and the robots amazed. "This is awesome!" Dusk exclaims while making the tentacle bend and twist around.

"Now that you know how to control your power, lets see if you can fight with it." Eggman says while flipping a couple switches on a nearby console. Several targets slide out of the slots in the ground. With a wave of her hand, Dusk slams the shadow-tentacle in all of them, splintering them into pieces. More targets slide out and again she smashes them.

Eggman flips another switch and this time the targets slide out of the wall. Dusk thrusts her hand forward to make the tentacle do the same, and it does...then stops about two inches from one of the targets, leaving all four of them confused.

"Why'd it stop?" Decoe asks.

"I don't know." Dusk replies. She tries again, but the shadow stops in the same place. "Its like the shadow has a limit on it." she mumbles while trying again, but getting the same result.

_Hmm...I never expected something like that to result from the new DNA..._ Eggman thinks to himself. He watches Dusk give it a couple more tries before saying, "Alright Dusk, that's enough training for today."

Dusk turns to look at Eggman, "Are you sure? I mean, I just got started."

Eggman gives her a nod. "You know how to work your skates and your power, we can begin the real training tomorrow."

Dusk shrugs, lets the shadow-tentacle and the aura around her hand disappear, then walks off towards the door.

"Decoe, Bocoe, escort Dusk back to her room so she doesn't get lost." the robots nod and hurry over to her side.

After they leave and the door closes, Eggman lets out a slightly frustrated grunt. "I didn't expect her powers to be limited like that..." he says to himself, "It looked like her powers could go only about five feet away from the source...granted most of Sonic's friends have to get closer then that, but with Sonic's speed, Shadow's chaos powers, and Blaze's fire...I wonder if Dusk will be able to handle herself against those three." He mumbles before going off to build better training equipment.

Decoe and Bocoe had brought Dusk back to the doorway to her room. "There you go Dusk." Decoe said.

"If there is anything you need from us, just ask." Bocoe adds.

"Thanks, but I'll be okay. A map of this place would be nice though." Dusk replies. Both robots walk off to go create a map for her, and Dusk enters her room and takes another look around.

It was a fairly good sized room. Her bed sat against the left wall and was in the middle of the room, beside it was a small end table with a digital clock that not only showed the time, but also the date and current tempearture. On the opposite side of the room sat a small table, a dresser, and a chair. The room had comfortable carpeting on the floor and the walls were painted a soft-burnt red color. The room was rather empty, but was luxurious compared to the metallic collider she was in a few seconds ago.

Dusk sighed a little and took off her Extreme Gear, set them next to the bed, and lied down. She formed another shadow tentacle from her bed's shadow, and started playing with it...mainly to see what she was capable of.

She experimented with waves of the hand, flicks of the wrist, and various finger motions. With each movement the shadow responded, but it seemed to react more to her thoughts then what action she did.

"Huh..." she sighes, "This is tricky. It seems like if I'm not paying attention, it'll do something I don't want it too."

She hears the door to her room slide open and glances over at it. Dusk was expecting Decoe and Bocoe to be there, but instead was a small, floating...thing. It gave Dusk a curious look and she did the same back.

"Who are you?" It asked in a high-pitched voice.

"Me? I'm Dusk." She replied. The little creature flew over and got his face barely two inches from hers. It didn't ask anything it else, it just floated over her...staring at her. "Umm...did you need something?" Dusk asked.

"No." it replied.

"Then...why are you staring at me?" Dusk asked, now sounding nervous.

"I havn't seen you before in any of Eggman's plans...what kind of robot are you?" It replied.

"Me? I'm not a robot I'm..." Dusk's cut off when the door slides open again, this time revealing Decoe and Bocoe.

"Bokkun! Get away from her!" Bocoe yells while the twosome rush over. Decoe grabs Bokkun and wrestles him out of the room.

"What was..."

"Sorry Dusk, but that creature is called Bokkun. He has many...odd perks." Bocoe explains.

"If by odd perks you mean being able to severely creep me out, then I've already found out about them." Dusk says.

"That and several others...Anyway, here is your map." Bocoe says while handing Dusk a folded up piece of paper. "We also brought you this." The silver robot says while handing over a large binder as well.

"What's this?"

"This is a binder that has information on Sonic, his allies, and various other things that are important. Eggman wanted you to study this while you are not training." Bocoe says.

Dusk sits up with a sigh and opens the binder. "Alright...I'll start studying." Bocoe bows then hurries out of the room.

"Guess it couldn't hurt..." she mumbles while reading the page on Sonic.

**Go ahead, say what you want about Dusk's power, but I made sure to build in those limits so she wouldn't seem too powerful. I didn't write this in, but in addition to the length limit Dusk also can't manipulate more then one shadow at once.**


	6. The First Encounter

Chapter 6 The First Encounter

About a week had passed since Dusk was 'born' and Eggman had stayed relatively quiet, mainly to train Dusk so she could handle herself against Sonic. He would've kept her in training longer, but his robots brought news of a Chaos Emerald appearing in downtown Station Square. Not wanting Sonic to have eight emeralds to his one, Eggman (rather regrettably) left base in his floating chair with Dusk standing atop the left wing.

"So, is there anything I should be told before we get there?" Dusk asks.

"Yes. Most likely Sonic will have a couple of his allies with him. You did study them, right?" Eggman asks.

Dusk gives a nod, "I studied your information on all of them. But studying is one thing, actually fighting them is another."

Eggman lets out a low groan, "True...very true. What you should understand is that if they start losing, Sonic and his friends will only fight harder. They'll also try pulling off a combination attack."

"Alright, I'll be cautious." Dusk says.

"Good girl. Now you remember the plan?" Eggman asks while Station Square appears on the horizon.

Dusk nods, "I keep Sonic and his friends busy while you go after the Chaos Emerald."

"Right, but if things get too intense don't be afraid to run." Eggman instructs.

"Eh, okay." Dusk says in an indifferent tone.

A couple minutes pass and Eggman's chair is now floating down one of the streets in the city. Down below the crowds are running away in fear, which is confusing for Dusk.

"Eggman, if you're trying to help people...why are they running away from you?" She asks.

"Oh...umm...you see, Sonic and I generally fight so often and so hard that people are terrified of the outcomes. We've fought so much that even the sight of me...the good guy...scares people off because Sonic could be right behind." Eggman lies. It seemed to satisfy Dusk enough for a shrug.

"Speaking of Sonic...when does he usually show up?" Dusk asks, looking down at the streets for any sort of blue hedgehog.

"Right about..." Eggman is cut off when a voice yells, "Eggman!" from behind them. Dusk turns to see Sonic running after them on the street below.

"There he is...take care of that annoying hedgehog, Dusk." Eggman says. A small smirk crosses Dusk's face before she jumps off the wing.

Sonic stops when he sees something leap off of Eggman's chair. Dusk pulls a couple front-flips as she falls towards Sonic, and lands as gracefully as Sonic would've.

Sonic lets out a low whistle after Dusk lands, "Eggman's getting better at making robots, you almost look real. Its a little creepy that he made such a realistic female android though."

"Android nothing. I'm just as alive as you are." Dusk replies before she goes running towards Sonic. Once her skates activate, she flies at a surprised Sonic and nearly punches him in the chest, but he jumped out of the way just in time.

"I've heard that before." Sonic says while landing, "But guess what? He was a robot too." He says while running at Dusk. Sonic grabs her wrist and would've thrown her...but his body locked up when he felt wrist bones._ She wasn't lying...she is real..._

Taking advantage of his surprise, Dusk grabbed Sonic's wrist and threw him...right into a car. The blue hedgehog let out a gasp of pain as his body collided with the door of the car and bent the metal. Sonic struggled to his feet as Dusk slowly walked up to him.

"Believe me now?" She smuggly asked.

Sonic did nothing but groan in reply. He would've ran at her and tried to land a punch, but his foot got slammed between him and the car when she threw him and was currently throbbing in pain.

"Aww...what's the matter? Did I hurt you?" She mocked while drawing closer. When she was five feet away, Dusk was about to spring forward to land another hit...but something hard slammed into her. With a yell, Dusk flew into the side of a building.

She shook her head and looked to see what hit her. Lying where she was standing was a gold and red hammer, and ten feet away from that was a pink hedgehog with another hammer in her hands.

Amy ran up to Sonic's side. "Are you alright Sonic?" she asked.

"Mostly...I slammed my foot pretty hard, pretty sure I banged up my ankle." Sonic mutters.

"Need any help?" Amy asks. Sonic shakes his head, "Just get her!" he yells while pointing at Dusk. Amy smiles then runs at Dusk, ready to take another swing with her hammer.

As Amy approaches, Dusk also begins running at her. As Amy swings her hammer, Dusk dives under it and kicks Amy's legs out from under her. Amy's body falls and hits the pavement of the road and Dusk spins around again for another kick. This one hits Amy's stomach, both knocking the wind out of her and sending her skidding across the pavement.

Dusk stands and looks at her work. Amy's lying several feet away, gasping for breath, and Sonic is support himself against the car she threw him into. "Heh, Eggman warned me that you guys would be tough, but man was he wrong." she says.

"Why are you even helping him?" Sonic asks.

"I'm surprised you asked. I'm helping Eggman get rid off you and your evil allies to bring peace to the world." Dusk says while walking toward him.

"Huh? You are have things seriously backwards girl. I'm the good guy, its Eggman whose trying to ruin everything and rule the world." Sonic says while closing a fist.

Dusk rolls her eyes, "First off, my name's Dusk not 'girl', and second, don't try lying to me...Eggman's already told me everything. Numerous times you and your allies have tried to either destroy or conquer the world and each time Eggman has barely stopped you." she says, still walking towards him.

"What are you talking about? Eggman's lied to you!" Sonic says with a little fear leaking into his voice.

"Nice try, but I don't believe you."

"Dusk!" Eggman's voice yelled from above them. Sonic and Dusk look upwards at Eggman's chair. "I have the Chaos Emerald, lets go." he says.

"We're leaving? And I've nearly won?" she argues.

"Won nothing. Several of Sonic's allies are coming, and your not ready to handle them yet. Let's go!" Eggman says back. His chair is already floating away down the street.

Dusk hesitates for a second, glares at Sonic and says "You've gotten lucky.", then skates after Eggman's chair. She forms a shadow-ramp and uses it to jump to the chair, grabbing the wing and flipping up onto it.

As Eggman and Dusk get away, Tails, Rouge, and Blaze arive and are surprised at their friends' current states. "What kind of robot did this?" Rouge asks.

"Robot nothing. This time Eggman has a Mobian working for him." Sonic grunts. "Tails, could you help Amy?" The fox nods and hurries over to the pink hedgehog's side.

"A Mobian? Why would anyone ally with Eggman?" Blaze asks.

"I don't know, but..." Sonic gasps and nearly falls, but Blaze catches him, "...Whoever she is, she's dangerous."

"Whoa whoa...did you say 'she'?" Rouge asks, "As in female?"

Sonic nods, "She said her name was Dusk, a hedgehog. Purple fur, long quills, one drooped over her eye. Looked like she was using Extreme Gear skates."

"Hmm...as far as I know, there aren't any hedgehogs like that in GUN's databases. Then again I haven't really looked that hard." Rouge mumbles.

"Regardless, she can throw hard." Sonic said, "What was also strange was how she got away...this weird blackish ramp just...appeared and she used it to get up to Eggman's chair."

"A black ramp? How did it form?" Tails asked.

"It just...grew out of the ground. Even stranger was that it just faded away after she jumped."

"I don't think there's any kind of technology that could do something like that..." Tails says.

Eggman, Decoe, and Bocoe are admiring the green Chaos Emerald they stole. "Ah...just look at it. Another emerald with us and out of Sonic's hands." Eggman says.

"Yes, now it is safe." Decoe agrees.

Bocoe nods, "There's no way for Sonic to use it against us now."

Dusk was a ways away from the other three. She could hear every word they were saying, but wasn't quite there. "Yea...its real nice." she says hollowly.

Eggman watches her for a few seconds then hands the Chaos Emerald over to his robots. "Go put that in the vault." He instructs. Both robots hurry off after a salute.

After his assistants left, Eggman strolled over to his creation. "Is everything okay Dusk?" he asks gently.

"Well...no. When I was fighting...err, beating Sonic, he said that he was the good guy and you were the bad one. I know its not true, but...he sounded sincere when he said that." Dusk says without looking at Eggman.

"What?!" Eggman yells, "That's absurd!"

"I know, I know its just...I can't get the thought of it being the truth out of my head." Dusk mumbles, still looking away from Eggman.

"Sonic was only saying that to confuse you, remember Dusk everything he says is a lie."

Dusk sighs, turns around and smiles at Eggman. "Thanks." is all she says before leaving.

Eggman watches her leave, and a small smile comes across his face. _Something about her seems...different from all of my other creations. Am I...Bah! That's nonsense! All I'm feeling is pride in proving my grandfather's theory. Nothing more._


	7. Dealing with the Guardian

Chapter 7 Dealing with the Guardian

Its nearly midnight, 11:50 PM to be exact. Dusk's fast asleep in her bed. It wasn't hard for her to sleep...the soft, purple-colored pajamas she wore and the light blanket she was under made it hard for Dusk to not sleep.

She quietly rolled over in her bed, just before a faint thud was heard. It didn't rouse Dusk, it didn't disturb her dream, in fact it barely made her ear twitch.

Another, slightly louder, thud is heard...this time with some inaudible mumbling. Again no reaction from Dusk. Yet another thud is heard that was louder then the first two, just before a grunt and some more mumbling.

This time Dusk wakes up. She barely open her right eye to look around. _What in the world is up at..._ she looks at the clock which glowed a gentle grey in the dark, ..._11:53 at night?_

A very loud thud is heard just outside the door to her room, as is a frustrated grunt and plenty of muttering. The door slides open and the hallway lights flood Dusk's room, causing her to grunt and pull her head under the sheets.

A small form enters her room, floating several feet above the ground. Bokkun floats up to the lump in bed. "Come on Dusk, up at 'em." he says with as much enthusiasm as possible.

Dusk groans, "Bokkun...go away, I should be asleep right now."

"You think you're the only one? Eggman literally pulled me out of bed ten minutes ago for me to come and get you." The creature argues with a yawn.

Dusk groans again. "What does Eggman want me for this late at night?"

"You've got me there, all I know is that he sounded eager...I rarely see him this excited at all." The only response is a grunt of annoyance, and a little shifting of the lump. "If you don't get up, I'll have to leave a bomb for you."

"Guuh..." she groans. Hearing that was just enough encouragement to get up. "Fine...tell Eggman I'll be right there." she says.

"He wants to meet you in the hangar." Bokkun says. Dusk pokes her head out from under the blanket to see Bokkun floating away, rubbing at a spot on his head.

"So that's what those thuds were...might as well go see what he wants." Dusk gets out of bed and changes into her normal outfit, then shuffles into the hallway.

Despite practically sleepwalking after leaving her room, she still gets to the hangar in under five minutes. After a yawn she looks around for Eggman, spotting him in his floating chair and seeming wide-awake. "Ah! Finally you're here." He says normally, despite the current time.

"Pardon my language, but how the hell do you have so much energy right now?" Dusk asks.

"I'm used to working late-nights...anyway Dusk, climb on. We've got a mission to do." He replies.

"What mission means dragging me out of bed at 11 something at night?"

"I'll explain on the way, now just climb on." Eggman says, now getting slightly irritated. Dusk mumbles something, then walks over to the left wing and use her shadow to lift her up. Instead of standing, Dusk sits down on the wing as the chair flies away.

Dusk would've dozed off in that sitting position had it not been for the cold wind blowing in her face. Sitting there in a half-daze Dusk listens to Eggman's plan. "We're going to attack Knuckles." He explains.

"Knuckles? You mean the red echidna?" Dusk asks.

"Yes."

"But why in the middle of the night?"

"That's when he's the easiest to beat."

Dusk snorts, _Yea...me too. _She thinks while rolling her eyes.

"You see Knuckles would easily spot us from his floating island during the day, but at night we'll be able sneak up on him...and that's if he's awake." Eggman further explains.

"Okay...so now tell me why we're even going to mess with him? The page on him said that he mostly keeps to himself on his island. If he's just going to stay there, why are we going to bother him?"

"Did you read about what he keeps with him on that island?" Eggman asks.

"Please, I'm not in the mood for a trivia game." Dusk says with a slightly annoyed tone in her voice.

"He keeps the Master Emerald there, and that Emerald can negate the powers of the other emeralds. Using that emerald's power, Sonic could cancel out the powers of our emeralds..."

"Or we can cancel out his?" Dusk finishes.

Eggman lets out a happy laugh, "Exactly!" He continued to chuckle a later more on their way, but Dusk mostly tuned him out, preferring to grab a little extra sleep.

* * *

About fifteen minutes pass before Dusk is woken up again. She looks to see Eggman gently shaking her and gesturing downwards. She looks down and sees some large ruins thanks to the glow of a large green gem. Also in the glow is a red figure, which Dusk guessed was Knuckles.

"That's the Master Emerald?" She asks while the chair descends.

Eggman nods, "What I want you to do is take that emerald and place it into the holder on the back of my chair."

"Say what?" Dusk asks in surprise, "You expect me to actually lift that huge gem? I don't think that's possible."

"If you can't lift it then just use your shadow powers." Eggman shrugs. The chair comes to a rest about three feet above the ground. "Remember, stay quiet."

Dusk nods then softly gets down from the wing. She creeps up to the stairway of the ruins and (with a little difficulty) ascends.

Sure enough, that red form she saw in the emerald's glow was Knuckles, but luckily the echidna was fast asleep...and snoring like a chainsaw. He was propped up against one of the ruined pillars, both hands behind his head, and actually looked harmless...despite the spiked knuckles and a couple sharp teeth poking out of his mouth. Bad thing was...Knuckles was lying in a way to block the staircase.

_Oh man! How am I supposed to get something as big as the Master Emerald past him?_Dusk thought. Despite the roadblock, she stepped over the echidna and continued up to the Master Emerald. She stands for a few seconds in awe of the size and beauty of the emerald...then snaps back to reality and tries lifting it.

After a couple seconds of her unsuccessful attempt, she gives in and tries lifting it with her shadow powers. Using her shadow, Dusk forms a tentacle that wraps itself around the base of the jewel. She lifts her hand, and (luckily) the jewel lifts up too. Dusk sighs from relief then walks back towards the sleeping roadblock, stopping beside him to figure out a way past.

What she didn't know though, was that since Knuckles can sense where the Master Emerald is, his body felt the emerald move and he woke up. Knuckles groans and then partially opens one eye.

Dusk freezes when he groans and does nothing while his eye is adjusting to the darkness. Once Knuckles realizes someone is try to steal his emerald, he springs forward and tries to punch her, but Dusk ducks just in time and kicks Knuckles in the gut, causing him to skid backwards.

"Who are you and what exactly do you think you're doing?" Knuckles growls to Dusk.

"My name is Dusk and I'm taking this emerald." She replies while setting it down. Knuckles smirks.

"Not without a fight you're not." He says before springing forward and throwing another punch, and again Dusk dodges.

Instead of attacking again, Dusk grabs the Master Emerald with another tentacle and hightails it down the staircase, with Knuckles right behind her. At the bottom, Dusk runs a couple feet before throwing the emerald into the grass and whipping around to kick Knuckles in the side.

The echidna slides a ways in the grass before getting up. "What do you want the emerald for?" he yells while running forward again.

"I'm taking it so Eggman has..." Dusk's cut off when Knuckles yells, "Eggman will never have the Master Emerald!" and leaping forward yet again.

Dusk sighs and counters by grabbing his hand and throwing him away. "Look, we only want to..." again she's cut off by a snarl and a charging echidna

"Dusk! He won't listen to us, just grab the emerald and lets go!" Eggman yells from the chair. Dusk kicks Knuckles away again, then grabs the emerald and hurries over to the chair. She sets it down in the holster and climbs onto the wing as Eggman flies away.

Knuckles watches Eggman and Dusk fly away with his emerald and shoots them a cold glare. "Grr...if Eggman's after the Master Emerald, then no good can come of it." A rumbling noise is heard and Angel Island begins falling...again. It plunges into the ocean about three miles away from Mystic Ruins.

* * *

Back at Eggman's base, he and Dusk have returned with the large Master Emerald. Decoe and Bocoe and quickly congratulated them on a job well done. "Yea, yea. Now if you don't mind Eggman...I'm going to back to bed." Dusk mumbles while hurrying off towards the door.

"Eggman, can you please explain why you require the Master Emerald?" Decoe asks.

"That answer is easy. I'm developing an incredibly powerful robot, but it needs a large power source. Only the Master Emerald can do the job right now, I don't have enough of the other emeralds." Eggman replies.

"But why even build a robot when we have Dusk?" Bocoe asks.

"I don't care how powerful Dusk is, it can't hurt to have several combat robot on standby." Eggman replies, "Enough chit-chat, get that emerald down to the vault. Now!"

Both robots salute, grab the emerald and hurry off. "Besides, with what I'm planning...Dusk could use a little backup." Eggman mumbles before walking off towards his room.


	8. Training and Thoughts

Chapter 8 Training and Thoughts

An uncomfortable grinding sound is heard as a large robot collapses onto the floor of the training room, a purple hedgehog standing atop it.

"Come on Eggman, don't you have anything tougher?" Dusk half-asks, half-complains as she jumps down from the wrecked robot that once resembled a sumo wrestler (now it vaguely looked like swiss cheese). "All of theses robots are wimps."

"Patience Dusk...patience. You'll fight the true combat robots when I think you're ready, not before." Eggman replies from his safe distance away, some of the training bouts could get pretty dangerous.

"But I am ready. Come on, please?" She argues back. "I promise not to damage it...badly."

Eggman thinks for a second, then replies, "Alright Dusk. I'll let you beta test my newest robotic creation." He presses a couple buttons on the console in front of him to call the robot. A few minutes pass before the robot elevator (which brings the robots out of the armory and up to the training room) arrives, with a very impressive robot on board.

The robot was at least twice Dusk's height and resembled a raptor. Where the eyes would be are two red panels, there are plenty of large, sharp, metal teeth in its mouth, and it has large metal claws on its feet and hands. Its body is coated in shiny, sleek, white armor...all in all, this robot looked pretty durable.

Dusk lets out a low whistle when she sees it, "Now this will be fun." she mumbles while readying for the robot's attack. It releases a loud mechanical roar and charges at her, with all the speed its prehistoric look-a-like would have. Dusk jumps out of the way of its charge, lands, then goes skating towards the robot's side.

Before she can even prep an attack, the robot aims the end of its tail at her revealing that its actually a gatling gun and begins firing. Dusk just barely gets away from the paintball training ammo (sure they weren't that dangerous, but they still stung). Even when she reaches near max speed, the paintballs are just inches away from hitting her. _Yeesh, I just had to go and open my mouth._ She thinks before catapulting herself off a shadow to get onto the robot's other side.

This time Dusk plays it smart and creates a shadow tentacle that wraps around and crushes the tail-gun before it can fire on her again, then uses the same shadow to knock the robot over. As it stands she goes charging at it again, only to be caught off-guard by another hidden weapon. Two of the robot's chest plates pop open and missiles begin firing out of the exposed area. Again Dusk is forced to pull off and evade the attack, only to find that the missiles are following her.

"Heatseekers, huh? Clever..." Dusk compliments while skating away from them. She pulls a hard 90-degree turn and shoots behind the robot, causing its own missles to hit it and explode slime all over the raptor-bot.

Dusk jumps at the slowed robot and delivers a swift kick that topples the machine over. Dusk doesn't wait for it to stand again, she forms another shadow-tentacle and pounds away at the robot, denting the armor and effectively disabling it.

"Alright Dusk, that's enough." Eggman says while turning the robot off and walking over to her.

Dusk's panting for two reasons, part of it is from dodging the robot's attacks but mostly its from the rush she gets from an exciting battle. "Phew! Now that was fun!" she exclaims, "Got anymore?"

Eggman can't help but chuckle at his creation's eagerness, "Easy Dusk, you've trained enough for now. Take a break and let your body recover." As much as Dusk wanted to continue, she knows that what Eggman says is right, her system probably wouldn't take another rush like that too well.

"Alright. Can I at least know what that robot is though?" she asks.

"That is a prototype of my new Egg-Raptor. Its one of six robots that I'm constructing right now, and you've only had a taste of its true power."

"I know that. It was only firing training ammo after all."

"True, but it also has several other weapons that it didn't use. It has its teeth and claws, but also a laser cannon." Eggman says.

Dusk lets out a small laugh, "Sounds like you've built a real destructive machine, and let me guess...all in the name of fighting Sonic?" Eggman nods. "Alright, bye." she says while walking towards the door.

She half-wanders, half-strolls through the hallways of Eggman's base...she wasn't lost, Dusk had more or less memorized the layout of the whole building, and her destination was the garage. Dusk arrived to find the room empty, save the machines that Eggman built.

She let out a small laugh upon noticing this, normally Decoe and Bocoe would be in here...tending to the machines, but apparently they were needed elsewhere. "This will make slipping out so much easier." Dusk mumbles while strolling over to the hangar door.

Dusk presses in the code '72508' into a keypad on the wall, a second later the hangar doors open. Dusk strolled out the door and climbed up the hill behind it. Eggman's base (from the outside) looked like a tower atop a long, flattened hill, but actually went down into the hill itself.

Dusk climbed up the side of the hill, layed down in the cool grass, and looked upwards to watch the clouds lazilly drift back and forth across the sky.

As she watched the clouds drift around, Dusk began gathering her own thoughts, and inevitably came upon Sonic and his allies. _Why is Sonic so bad? Why are he and his friends evil? According to Eggman they've always been that way...but they don't seem evil. My first encounter with them, when Eggman and I went to go take that Chaos Emerald...there were plenty of opportunities for Sonic or Amy to cause trouble...plenty of buildings to destroy and hiding people to attack, but they only concentrated on me. Why? Now that I actually think about...why would we leave Station Square alone with Sonic and several of his allies present?_

A gentle breeze blows along the side of the hill, ruffling through her clothes and quills. Dusk sighs contently at the wind's gentle touch, and lets it blow away a little of her stress. _I know better, but something in the back of mind is telling me something's wrong...that I'm wrong._ She thinks before a sad sigh comes out. _Could...could all of what Eggman told me really be a...NO! Eggman would never lie to me. Never._

_Still...I don't know, all of these destructive robots...sure Eggman said that they were for taking down Sonic, but the sheer firepower on some of them...it seems too dangerous to be made by a man who wants to bring good to the world. _Dusk deeply exhales then looks back into the clouds, tracing shapes and pictures out of them with her mind, and quietly laughs at some of them.

"Ah...what I would give to be able to do this with a friend..." She mumbles after forming a picture of Eggman out of a couple clouds. "Eggman and the others...they're nice to me, but they seem more like an adopted family." She mumbles aloud.

Dusk lies there for about an hour, having fun tracing pictures in the sky, then runs out of ideas and just lies there. "As much as I hate to say it...I kind of envy Sonic. He may be evil...but at least he has friends. One friend is all I'd like, we don't have to hang out, we don't have to play games, I'd just like someone to at least talk with, and laugh with." she says aloud. Dusk can feel a couple tears roll down from her eyes and gently wipes them away. She slowly stands, re-enters Eggman's base, and works her way to her room.

* * *

Dusk lies down on her bed and starts passing a small ball around. A couple minutes pass and the door opens, letting Bokkun float in. "Hiya Dusk!" he exclaims.

"Hey Bokkun." Dusk weakly replies. Bokkun was in high spirits when he came in, but Dusk's reply made him sadden a little.

"What's wrong? Do you not want me here?" He asks.

"Oh no, no! I'm just...feeling a little down right now." She replies.

"Like how?"

"Well, I'm just...lonely." Bokkun tilts his head and looks confused.

"How can you be lonely? I'm right here."

Dusk can't help but smile at Bokkun's naiveness. "Not lonely as in 'being alone', I mean..." Dusk sighs and shakes her head, "You wouldn't understand."

Bokkun still looks confused, but doesn't question any further. "Anyway, Eggman's down in the armory. He wants to show you something." he says before leaving. Dusk sighs and departs for the armory.

* * *

"There you are, I've been waiting a while." Eggman grumbles as Dusk walks in.

"Well I'm here, so what did you need?" Dusk asks.

"I was going to show you something." Eggman replies. He gestures behind him, where six Egg Raptors were standing.

"You wanted to show me your Egg Raptors?" Dusk asks in confusion.

"Actually, I wanted to show you your troops."

"Excuse me?"

"You see Dusk, I'm planning an attack on Blaze's estate, where nearly all of Sonic's emeralds are held. And you are going to lead that attack." Eggman explains.

"What about you?"

"Well, I have a project that is in a very critical state right now, so I can't come along. But I'm confident in your abilities. Use the Egg Raptors to break into Blaze's estate, locate the emeralds and take as many as you can." Eggman further explains.

"But, are...are you sure you can entrust me with something like this? I don't think I'm ready." Dusk admits.

"I know you are ready. Besides, we need to get those emeralds away from Sonic and his allies as soon as we can, and I can't entrust anyone else with this important mission."

Dusk deeply exhales, "Okay, so when will we attack?"


	9. The First Assault

**Just a little bit of a reminder...I do not own Sonic or any other related characters. The only one I do own is Dusk.**

**And while I'm talking (you know what I mean) I'd like to give a quick thanks to the three reviewers who appear to be loyal fans, Toko the Pikmin Master (who apparently can see the future), Farming Chick, and Dr. Dude. I haven't really gone that far with this story yet, but I'm still thanking those three...of course it is okay to give me your complete thoughts.**

**Enough talk, behold chapter 9!**

Chapter 9 The First Assault

Across a large open field of grass, the only thing moving is the grass in the wind. All is quiet and peaceful. Then a purple streak tears across the field, with six robots following.

"Come on you slowpokes!" Dusk yells back at the Egg Raptors, "I'll be sleeping outside Blaze's place by the time you get there."

The raptors release a mechanical snarl and accelerate to their absolute max speed, but they're still lagging a little ways behind.

"Dusk." Eggman's voice says. Dusk glances down at a small device around her wrist. "Slow down, you'll want the Raptors to reach Blaze's estate first. Use them to distract everyone so you can slip in and grab the emeralds."

Dusk lets out an exaggerated groan and slows down enough for the raptors to pass her, then matches their speed.

* * *

Meanwhile, down at Blaze's estate, Sonic, Blaze and everyone else are discussing the matter of Dusk and how easily she seems to have beaten them.

"Alright, so lets get our information straight." Blaze says, "Dusk is a purple, female, hedgehog that has allied with Eggman and seems to have some strange shadow-manipulating technology?"

"Just about." Amy replies.

"The only thing you forgot was that she uses Extreme Gear skates to go at speeds to match me." Sonic adds.

"Right, and as for some record of her...I've found nothing." Rouge states, "I managed to get access to all of GUN's records, but there's not one single match. And GUN has a record on nearly everyone...if they don't then they have access to other records that help fill in the gaps."

"So you're saying there's no birth cirtificate?" Tails asks. Rouge nods.

"Okay, moving on to the case of emeralds, how many do we have?" Silver asks.

"Nine on the last count. Five Chaos Emeralds and four Sol Emeralds." Tails answers.

"And Eggman?" Silver asks.

"At least two. One chaos and one sol, but he could've found the others." Amy answers.

"He also has the Master Emerald. He and Dusk stole it a few nights ago." Knuckles adds.

"Okay. Now that we've got our facts straight, what should we do about them?" Blaze asks. Before she could be answered, a large explosion blows a hole in the wall of the room. After the debris stops flying, everyone looks to see Dusk standing there with six large robots behind her.

"Get 'em!" she yells. The robots roar and charge in, scattering the group and pursuing them throughout the estate. Chuckling at how quickly everyone left, Dusk enters and starts searching for the vault that holds the emeralds.

One of the raptors had followed Rouge and Knuckles through the hallways of the estate, but lost sight of them when it followed the two around a corner. It slowly walked down the hallways, peering through every open door for some sign of the two and occasionally releasing a hiss.

The two were hiding behind a large couch in a room several doors ahead of the robot. "What are we doing hiding from that thing?" Knuckles snaps at Rouge in a whisper. "We should be fighting it!"

"Okay, first off I don't care if you're whispering, you do not use that tone with me. Second blindly rushing against that thing won't do any good. Wait for it to pass, then we can attack." Rouge whispers back. Knuckles starts to say something in reply, but Rouge clasps a hand over his mouth when she hears a couple footsteps outside.

A second later the Egg-Raptor peers in, hisses a little, then moves on. "Now." she whispers to Knuckles. The two creep out of the room and quickly charge the machine.

The second raptor had followed Sonic down another series of hallways and into a large storeroom. The hedgehog had dove behind several large crates, and quietly waited for the robot to march by. Sonic peered out from behind the crate, saw that the robot was looking away from him, and quickly launched a homing attack.

The third, fourth, and fifth raptors had chased the remaining Mobians into separate parts of the estate and had managed to preoccupy them. Tails and Silver were fighting out in one of the gardens, Blaze was stuck in the main ballroom, and Amy was chased down into the servant's quarters. Egg-Raptor number 6, however had followed Dusk through the estate's hallways. Dusk needed the robot's firepower to open the vault, but it didn't provide any help as to finding said vault.

"I don't suppose you know where the vault is?" Dusk asks the large robot following her. It releases a hiss in reply. "Didn't think so." she mumbles. Dusk checks her wrist-device, but finds that its not receiving a signal. "Typical." she groans before rounding a corner.

After a couple minutes of wandering, Dusk and her robot come into a large, high-ceilinged room with a metal door at the far end. "Finally I found it, alright Egg Raptor...blast that door apart!" Dusk yells.

The robot roars and a bright blueish glow forms in its mouth...a sign that its laser cannon is charging. Just when its about to fire, a voice yells, "Chaos. Spear!" causing several streaks of yellow light to shoot through the robot from behind. Dusk barely has enough time to shield herself with a shadow wall before the robot explodes.

Once the debris stop flying, Dusk lowers her shield and looks down the hallway, and sees a black and red hedgehog standing there.

Shadow snickers a little when he sees Dusk semi-stunned. "I thought you were going to come here." he says smugly, "Using the other robots as a distraction while you busted open the vault and made off with our emeralds...clever I must admit."

"Heh, if you're looking to give out credit, give it to Eggman. This was all his idea...of course, if you, Sonic, and the others weren't so bad he never would've thought something like that up." Dusk replies, doing her best to conceal her uneasiness.

"Us? Bad?" Shadow laughs a little at that, "The only Mobian here besides you that is bad is me, and even then I've changed. Sonic and the others are heroes, and its Eggman whose the bad one."

"So I keep hearing. But there's no good way for you to prove that now is there?" Dusk replies.

"That may be, but regardless...I know the truth. I also know that you're not leaving with the emeralds on the other side of the door." Shadow says while calmly walking into the room. "You know there's plenty of ways I could've subdued you by now."

"So why haven't you?" Dusk asks while getting into a slight stance.

"I'm curious. Out of everyone and everything that Sonic fought, I'm the only one who could consistently beat him. Then you came along..." Shadow says while continuing his calm march towards her, "..You managed to defeat Sonic, to some extent. Since he told us about that, I've been wondering...was that luck? Or not?"

"Is that a challenge I'm hearing?"

"More or less. You're not leaving with the emeralds, but I'd like to see how long you'd last." Shadow answers with a slight mocking tone.

Dusk clenches a fist and waits for some kind of lunge or attack, but Shadow just keeps walking. When he's about ten feet from her, Dusk pulls a surprise attack. She forms a tentacle out of his shadow, slams him with it which causes Shadow to fly towards her, the Dusk jumps and slams her knee into his jaw and follows up with a kick to the gut.

Shadow grunts from both hits and is thrown away to the left wall. He lets out a slight growl as he gets up, then a chuckle. "Finally! Someone I can really fight against!" He exclaims with an almost happy tone, "Sonic was getting a little too predictable." Shadow says while cracking his knuckles. He then flies at Dusk with a fist of his own clenched.

Dusk gives a small smirk, clenches her own fist, and also lunges at Shadow.

**Whoo! Finally, Shadow and Dusk fight...I've been wanting to right that. As for the rest of the fight, I decided to give it a chapter to itself. That chapter is nearly complete, just have to add one more portion. Who'll win? you'll have to wait and see...  
Like I said earlier, feel free to give distinct comments in a review. As long as its not a flame I don't mind.**


	10. Shadow vs Shadows

Chapter 10 Shadow vs. Shadows

Both hedgehogs thrust their fists at one another, but at the same time roll out of the way to dodge. Dusk's fist grazes Shadow's cheek, and Shadow's fist grazes Dusk's shoulder. Both slide a few feet after the glancing blows and look over their shoulders at the other.

Shadow quickly spins around and skates at Dusk again. He swings his fist at her, but Dusk jumps out of the way and counters with a kick...only to have Shadow slide out of the way.

"Chaos Spear!" Shadow yells, causing several yellow spears to form and fly at Dusk. She dodges them, but only by inches.

"Nice, but try dodging this!" she yells. A black aura surrounds her hand and a tentacle erupts out of Shadow's shadow. The shadowy projection takes a swing at Shadow who ducks out of the way. He tries to run away from it, but since the tentacle is attached to his shadow, it follows him.

Shadow skates around the room, dodging the shadow's attacks while it follows him around. Finally he gets fed up and throws several Chaos Spears at the shadow, ripping it apart and forcing it to return to normal.

"Congrats, you're the first one whose actually destroyed one of my shadows." She leaps out of the way of a quick punch, "I actually didn't think that was possible." Dusk says while lunging back at him and kicks, but barely misses him.

Their little fight continues on for a several minutes, but the most damage that either hedgehog can do is knick the other with a fist or the edge of their shoe. Now both seem to have stopped.

Dusk is standing near the vault door, her back to it. Shadow is standing about the same distance away from the hallway door, keeping his eyes trained on Dusk for a hint of an attack. Dusk is panting because of the rush she usually gets from a fight like this, but also because of how much she's been jumping and moving around to dodge Shadow's attacks.

Surprisingly, Shadow is also slightly panting. Dusk had been keeping the Ultimate Life Form on his toes because of how quickly she was able to take attack and how fast she was at countering, the panting was the result of having to stay on the move through almost the whole fight.

Their stare-down continues in silence for several seconds, then Shadow breaks it by letting out a single laugh. "I must admit it Dusk. You have me impressed." he compliments.

"Same here." She says between breaths, "Always my attacks were just barely dodged. You are definitely a lot more entertaining then fighting robots...or the others."

"Then you didn't fight Sonic when he's on a good day. That's the only time anyone has been able to last this long against me. But I've still got a couple tricks ready." Shadow replies with a smirk, "Chaos...Control!"

Shadow disappears, but before Dusk is able to look around an invisible mass slams into her and throws her into the metal door. Before Dusk can react she feels a fist connect with her left arm, and a couple seconds later, her body connects with a wall. Dusk groans, looks towards the vault door, and sees Shadow appear out of nowhere...calmly walking towards her.

A faint smile is present on Shadow's face...almost like he's enjoying this. Dusk gets to her feet and takes up another fighting stance. "Hmph. Still wanting to fight?" Shadow remarks, "Persistent I must say, but I think you've reached your limit." he says while stopping about five feet away from her.

"Limit nothing. I'm nowhere near my limit." Dusk replies in an unconvincing tone. She really didn't look it either, it seemed like she was straining to stay upright and the area on her arm where Shadow punched appeared to have swelled a little.

"Lying is not one of your strong points." Shadow says with a tiny amount of humor.

"Yea? You certainly don't know how to keep me down. Maybe you're going easy on me." Dusk replies, "Because if this is how you normally fight, I'm a little disappointed."

Her little taunt seemed to have angered Shadow...just what Dusk wanted. With a slight growl, Shadow lunges at Dusk, his fist out in front. Dusk manages to curl away enough for the fist to just miss, then slams her knee into Shadow's stomach as hard as possible. He flies backwards and lands right beside the vault door.

"You...little...brat." Shadow growls while placing a hand around his stomach and standing.

Dusk shrugs, "Not my fault you're easily angered. I just played off of your weaknesses."

Shadow lets out another growl. "Oh really?" he asks while clenching a fist. A strange glint seems to sparkle in his eyes and his red highlights appear to glow. "Chaos..."

_I hope this works..._ Dusk thinks while readying her shadow. She quickly forms another shadow wall and completely surrounds herself with it, basically sealing herself between wall and shadow.

"Blast!" Shadow yells. An enormous amount of Chaos Energy explodes off of Shadow and tears through the room. Dusk's shadow-wall absorbs most of it, but it still shatters and Dusk is hit by the ending of the wave.

The room isn't much better shape, the attack practically destroyed the walls, there are huge cracks running through the ceiling, and the vault door is no more.

"Thanks for opening the vault for me." Dusk says while steadying herself, "Guess you got something wrong...I am escaping with the emeralds." She runs then skates towards Shadow.

Triggering a Chaos Blast when the wind is knocked out of you isn't easy, and even though Shadow can't move out of the way he was able to at least brace for her blow. Oddly though...it never comes. Dusk had chosen to do something completely different.

She slid off to one side and darted past Shadow, but along the way she slowed down enough to land a small, short kiss on his cheek. It may have been small, but the kiss caught Shadow off-guard...then he found himself flying into a damaged wall from a kick to his back.

Dusk quickly jumped into the vault and smashed open the case holding the emeralds. "Time to get you guys out of here." She mumbles while scooping them up with a shadow-basket of sorts.

As Dusk left the vault with her nine emeralds, her luck ran out. Sonic and everyone else was coming straight into the room, spotted the vault door gone and her standing there, and instantly knew what happened.

Before the crowd could react, Dusk quickly skated for the hole in the wall made when Shadow connected to it, jumped out and over the black hedgehog, and started to sped away across the grounds.

She didn't get too far though, when Shadow struggled to his feet and launched a couple Chaos Spears at her shadow, destroyed it, and scattered the emeralds. Dusk was only able to grab three of them before she ran off.

Out of the five Chaos and four Sol emeralds, Dusk got away with two of the Chaos and one Sol emerald.

Only Sonic and Blaze gave chase, the others stayed behind to help Shadow. A few minutes pass before Sonic and Blaze return.

"We lost her." Sonic says.

"We followed Dusk to the wall, then she formed a ramp and catapulted herself over it and got away." Blaze adds.

"Well...at least its not a total loss. She only got away with three emeralds." Amy says optimistically.

"True, but now Eggman had at least five emeralds and the Master Emerald. We only have six emeralds, three of each." Knuckles states.

"So Shadow, what exactly happened?" Rouge asks.

"Well. I started making my way to the vault when Dusk attacked, to guard it. Somehow she and one of those robots got there first. I destroyed the robot and then started fighting with Dusk." Shadow says.

"And you got beaten by her? Even with your Chaos Powers, Shadow still got beaten." Sonic interrupts.

Shadow growls at his blue counterpart, "I wasn't beaten Sonic. In fact, I was winning then she got off a lucky hit that knocked the wind out of me. Then I further used up my stamina with a Chaos Blast."

"Is that how she got into the vault?" Silver asks, receiving a nod as an answer.

"She got behind me and kicked me into the wall. Then...you all know the rest." Shadow grumbles.

"But, aren't you the Ultimate Life Form? Shouldn't you have beaten her right away?" Tails asks.

Shadow hesitates before giving an answer. "Yes I am the Ultimate Life Form, but I...I was really just toying with her at first...it was when I really started fighting when Dusk got off that lucky hit."

"Alright, but right now we have another problem. Since my vault is in ruin, where are we going to store the emeralds Dusk left?" Blaze asks.

"I'm sure GUN wouldn't mind locking them up in one of their vaults." Rouge answers. "At least they'll be protected until this vault is re-built."

"It should do...but I'd like to keep one at my workshop." Tails states.

"Why?" Blaze asks.

"I've almost finished up an invention, but I need an emerald to test it." Tails replies.

"Well...I suppose it would be a bit of a good idea to separate them, should Eggman attack again." Blaze mumbles. "What is this invention anyway?"

"It should give us a slight edge on Eggman when it comes to the Chaos and Sol Emeralds." Tails says with a smirk and his tails flicking about.

* * *

Decoe, Bocoe, and Bokkun are standing outside the open doorway to the training room. Dusk was inside and normally the threesome would ask how it went, but seeing her current state was more then enough to keep them outside.

Sure Dusk was only attacking a punching bag (one of the big cylinder-shaped ones), but she also seemed to be very upset. It looked like she was hitting the bag even harder then usual and occasionally she'd let out angered yell and punch/kick so hard that the chain holding the bag up would creak from strain.

Eggman was walking down the hallway, looking for Dusk to hear how the mission went, when he sees his assistants and Bokkun looking into the training room.

"What are you three watching?" Eggman asks as he approaches.

"See for yourself." Bocoe says while gesturing into the room. Eggman looks, sees Dusk, and starts walking in, but then Decoe and Bocoe grab the back of his shirt and jerk him backwards.

"What exactly do you think you're doing?" Eggman asks angrily.

"Trust us, you don't want to go in there right now." Decoe says.

"And why not?"

Before either robot could answer, a loud yell comes from the room just before a metallic snap and a loud thud.

"Umm...Dusk just snapped the chain for the punching bag." Bokkun says in a slightly timid voice.

Eggman looks nervously at his robots then stands and says, "Perhaps I'll let Dusk vent her anger a little before I go in."

The four of them watch Dusk walk away from the grounded punching bag and over to the track. She begins running, then skating around the track as fast as her Extreme Gear can possibly go.

Dusk speeds around the track nonstop for the next ten minutes. Finally she starts slowing down and comes to a complete stop after a few minutes of coasting. She stands there for a couple minutes, breathing deeply and standing completely still.

"Its okay guys. I've calmed down now." She says in a loud enough voice for Eggman and the others to hear.

Eggman cautiously walks in with Decoe, Bocoe, and Bokkun following. "You sure you've calmed down?" Eggman asks.

"Yea. I just really needed to let some anger out." Dusk replies without turning to look at him.

"What for?"

"The mission didn't go as planned."

"How did it go?"

"Well...to make a long story short, I broke into the estate and managed to get all of their emeralds...but as I was getting away an attack from Shadow made me drop all but three of 'em." Dusk admits.

"So where are the emeralds you managed to get?" Eggman asks. Dusk points to a small table on the far side of the room where the yellow Sol Emerald and gray and purple Chaos Emeralds are resting.

Eggman looks at Decoe and Bocoe and gestures towards the emeralds. Both robots walk over, grab the emeralds, and leave.

"May I ask why you were so mad?" Eggman cautiously asks.

Dusk finally turns to Eggman, and he sees that there is a line of tears at the bottom of her eyes. "They had nine emeralds. NINE emeralds! And I was this close..." she holds her thumb and index finger half an inch apart, "...to stealing all of them. Then Shadow had to throw a couple of his Chaos Spears and make me drop nearly all of them."

The tears start slowly sliding down her cheeks. "All six of your Egg Raptors were destroyed, and I only got away with a three of their nine emeralds. You trusted me with this important mission and completely blew it. I failed..." Dusk sinks down onto her knees and lets the tears fall even faster.

"You didn't fail Dusk." Eggman says, causing Dusk to look up. "I can always rebuild the Egg Raptors, and you did manage to steal enough emeralds for one of my most ambitious plans to begin."

"I guess that makes me feel a little bit better." Dusk mumbles and wipes away her tears. "Thanks."

Eggman gives a bit of a smile then leaves with Bokkun following. Dusk stands up and walks over to the punching bag. "Knowing that I didn't completely fail helps." She mumbles, "But..." Dusk remembers her fight with Shadow. "..At least I finally got to really test my skills. That was a lot of fun, and Shadow actually looked...handsome." Dusk smiles and giggles at that. "I'm really looking forward to our next meeting." she mumbles aloud while rolling the punching bag up against the wall.

**Well? How was Shadow and Dusk's fight? If you're thinking this is the last time those two will fight, think again. Of course their next fight won't come in the next chapter, but it will happen...trust me.**


	11. Some Free Time

Chapter 11 Some Free Time

A couple weeks have passed since the attack on Blaze's estate and Eggman, Decoe, and Bocoe have apparently locked themselves into lower part of the base since then...what they were doing however, neither Dusk or Bokkun knew.

Dusk really didn't mind that much, with Eggman doing whatever he was doing, she got to train according to _her _schedule...that meant she could sleep in, stay up late, just have a little more freedom then usual. Unfortunately, with Decoe and Bocoe gone Dusk also had to keep an eye on Bokkun (since the little guy could easily get himself into trouble).

The midnight-purple hedgehog was strolling on her own through the hallways. She had just checked on Bokkun and found that he was fast asleep on one of the chairs in the computer room.

"Finally, a little time to myself." Dusk says with a content sigh, "I don't know how Decoe and Bocoe manage to keep an eye on him...then again it probably helps that there are two of them."

She walks through the base to the garage, opens the outer door, and leaves the base. Like she usually does, Dusk lies down in the grass and watches the clouds drift around. Even though Dusk does her best to let her mind wander, it keeps drifting back to her most recent fight...the one with Shadow.

"Why does that fight seem so special to me? Was it because it was a challenge? Or maybe..." Dusk's voice trails off when she remembers the kiss that threw Shadow off-guard and giggles a little when she remembers his expression, "I have to admit, it was kinda fun doing that...ah well. I suppose I should enjoy that memory while it lasts...after what I did to Shadow, I doubt he'll let me get close enough for another." She watches the clouds for a while longer before she gets bored.

Dusk gets up and quickly skates away from the base, deciding to go exploring. Since the area around Eggman's base is nothing but flat, grassy, plains Dusk speeds off towards a more rugged area nearby, Red Canyon.

A big change from the grassy plains, Red Canyon is aptly named. A large deep canyon runs through the middle of this place, but there are also hills and caves as well. The name comes from the reddish dirt that's everywhere and few plants grow here...the ones that are present are mostly scraggly, low-growing ones.

* * *

Dusk stops at the edge of the canyon. She looks down at the large canyon, then around at the nearby hills. "Talk about a scenery change." she mumbles. Dusk sees a possible route down into the canyon, even though its only an un-even ledge downward. She slowly and carefully walks down the ledge, reaching the bottom in about ten minutes.

She looks around and spots a narrow cave in the canyon wall. "I've still got awhile until Bokkun wakes up...I guess it couldn't hurt to take a peek." She says before slipping through the entrance. The cave as it seemed was little more then a crack in the wall, wide enough to squeeze through but only if you went in sideways.

After a couple minutes of squeezing through the crack, Dusk finally pops into a small cavern. "That...was uncomfortable." She mutters before cracking her back, "Now where is this?" Dusk looks around the small room. Enough light was filtering through the wall for her to see, but the room was empty apart from her. The light did reveal one thing though...there was a small tunnel at the bottom of the room.

Dusk kneels down to look at the hole. She could fit through it...but only if she crawled. "Great...more tight spaces. Probably shouldn't go through there, I don't want to get stuck. I'll come back when someone's with me." she mumbles. Dusk squeezes back through the crack, uses her shadow to carve an 'X' in the wall to mark the cave, then explores Red Canyon some more.

After several hours, the sun starts sinking down the sky and Dusk heads back to the base.

* * *

The first thing she does is check on Bokkun, and finds that he's still fast asleep in the chair. Dusk sighs, then walks off towards her room.

She sets her skates by the door, lies down on her bed, and shuts her eyes. _Nice and quiet...maybe I can catch just a little bit of a nap..._ Dusk thinks as she feels herself drift off.

"Dusk!" Bokkun's voice yells. _So much for __**that**__ idea._

Dusk opens her right eye and glances over at the door just in time to see Bokkun barge in. "Bokkun! Don't you know you shouldn't barge into a girl's room?" She says in an annoyed voice, "A little respect for another person's privacy please!" She finishes while sitting up.

"Sorry, but its kind of important." Bokkun replies with a nervous tone.

"What is it?"

"I was sleeping, but then an alarm in the computer room went off and woke me up. I checked and saw that the long-range scanners have picked up an aircraft."

"And that's important enough for you to barge into my room?" Dusk asks, "Its probably just a passing passenger jet." She mumbles before lying back down.

"I thought that too, but then I checked and the plane is heading right for us! Its also coming at a much faster speed then any passenger jet would!"

Dusk lets out a slight groan, then gets up, puts her skates back on and skates towards the computer room with Bokkun following as quickly as possible.

She slides to a stop beside the radar console and looks at the screen. A small blip is approaching the base and according to the computer, its going nearly Mach 1.

_Yea, this is no passenger jet._ Dusk thinks while pressing a couple buttons on the console. A second screen flickers, then shows the view of an outside security camera.

The mystery plane was too far away to see right now, but Dusk switches on the telescopic imaging. The picture immediately zooms in to 3x.

A small speck can be seen in the lower right corner, and Dusk centers on it then zooms in to 10x. Her face instantly falls. The mystery plane is the X-Tornado.

"Oh crud." Dusk mutters. She can clearly see Tails in the pilot's seat, Amy was seating behind him, and an indistinguishable form is present in the front seat of the rear cockpit, but judging by the presence of black, pink, and white, Dusk guessed it was Rouge. Knuckles (or a fuzzy image of him) could be seen riding on the outside of the plane, as was Silver...but Sonic, Shadow, and Blaze were nowhere to be seen.

"I don't know where Sonic, Shadow, or Blaze is but I guess it doesn't matter." She mumbles while flipping a switch.

'_Perimeter defenses...on-line. Current security level, Level 2._' A computerized voice says.

Outside the base, a great many turrets began popping up out of the ground. Some were laser cannons, others were machine guns, some were even rolling around...but all of them were watching for the X-Tornado.

In addition to the turrets, every entrance inside was not only closed, but also blocked by an electrified, 3-inch thick steel panel. On the inside, defense turrets were popping out of the ceiling and the robots were switched into patrol mode (and by patrol mode, I mean they wander aimlessly through the hallways looking for Sonic or one of his friends.)

Dusk was quietly watching the X-Tornado fly towards the first layer of defense turrets, Bokkun floating over her left shoulder.

"Do you think those turrets will shoot down the X-Tornado?" Bokkun asks.

"I doubt it, but it could at least slow them down." Dusk answers.

Two minutes pass before the X-Tornado gets close enough for the turrets to open fire, but it seems like before they do they start blowing up.

"Why are these turrets randomly exploding?" Dusk asks aloud while trying to find a better view. As if by luck, one of the outer cameras was watching were the turrets were blowing up, and showed a blue and yellow-black streak pinging between them. _Guess I found Sonic and Shadow...but where's Blaze?_

A couple minutes pass before Dusk spots a third streak, this one a faint lavender color. Unlike Sonic and Shadow, Blaze's was following underneath the X-Tornado...possibly to protect from attacks from the rear.

Several more minutes pass and Sonic's attack has broken through to the garage's outer door. She can't see what's happening (mainly because Knuckles took out the camera there), but she still slams the 'Panic' button, causing the alarms to go off and every robot go on high-alert mode.

"If its a fight those guys want...its a fight they'll get." Dusk growls while clenching a fist.

**Okay, I gotta admit...this is just filler. I know that not much happened here, but I'll make it up to you all with the next couple of chapters.**


	12. The Launching of a Battleship

Chapter 12 The Launching of a Battleship

"Dusk." Eggman's voice says through a speaker in the computer room. "Dusk, what's going on up there? Why are the alarms going off?"

"The answer to both questions is that Sonic and his allies are attacking! Its thanks to me that the defense systems are on-line!" Dusk replies with a little panic in her voice.

"Say what?!" Eggman yells. "Try and keep them busy for a little bit. I'm nearly finished with my next creation."

"I'll do my best, but you owe me big for this." Dusk replies. She brings up the layout of the entire base on the computer screen to try and find where Sonic and the others are.

The camera that Knuckles destroyed was at the outer garage door, and fortunately it seemed like they hadn't gotten past the electrical barrier. "I'll send a little backup there in case they do break through." she mumbles while typing hurriedly on the keys.

Three of the patrolling robots stop what they're doing and head for the garage, E-201 (a cube-shaped robot with two tank treads on its sides and two machine guns on top), E-301 (a humanoid robot with a flamethrower for one hand and long curved sword for the other), and E-401 (another humanoid robot that has two laser cannons embedded into its palms).

* * *

"How are we going to get through this?" Tails asks while looking at the electrified door. There wasn't any sparks coming off it, but they knew it was electrified since Knuckles tried to punch through it and was knocked backwards.

"Can't you just Chaos Control us to the other side?" Rouge asks while looking at Shadow.

"I could, but without a Chaos Emerald I can't teleport all of us. It would be just me and someone else." Shadow replies.

"Then just Chaos Control to the other side and use a Chaos Blast to blow the door open." Sonic says.

Shadow looks away then disappears. He reappears inside the garage, but E-201 was already there and began firing on him. Shadow easily skates away from the shots and throws a few Chaos Spears that destroy the robot.

"Piece of junk." Shadow mumbles while walking up to the door. "Stand back!" He yells before charging his chaos energy. "Chaos...Blast!" The energy surges off of him and rips the door clear out of its spot.

The rest of them run in as E-301 and E-401 enter the room. The robots immediately begin attacking, and most of Sonic's group fights back. Sonic and Shadow leave their friends to go look for Eggman, the emeralds, or (for Shadow) Dusk. The two hedgehogs split up at the first fork to cover more ground.

* * *

Back in the computer room, Dusk is frantically entering commands into the system. For some reason nothing she put in would be accepted and all of the robots seemed to be converging to one room that was nowhere near Sonic or any of his allies.

"Why aren't any of these robots listening?!" She yells in frustration. Eggman's voice comes back through the speakers right after she asks that question...almost like he was listening.

"Dusk. The basic preparations are complete...I need you to head to the room the robots are converging at right now!" he yells.

"Why..." she cut off when Eggman yells something else through the speakers, "No questions, just hurry!"

Dusk looks at screens, quickly memorizes the way to the room and, speeds off...Bokkun following as fast as possible. The room she was supposed to go to was down at the bottom of the base...but when the security systems are engaged past level 2 the elevators shut off, leaving the only way downward being the stairs.

She and Bokkun shoot around corners and fly through the hallways as fast as they could, knowing that somewhere in here are Sonic and Shadow, and they're probably very mad. The sooner they got to the room, the better.

Dusk's luck seems to be good, not one glimpse of a blue or black and red hedgehog is seen as she zips through the base. Then her luck runs out when she finds Sonic...only two turns away from reaching the staircase.

"Ha! I found you!" He exclaims and quickly lunges at her. Dusk ducks out of the way and nails a kick to Sonic's back, sending him skidding down the hallway.

"Sorry, but I can't fight right now." She replies and skates away. Sonic gets up and follows her purple blur around the corner.

Dusk skids to a stop at the staircase. There were two ways she could go, either up or down. However, the staircase went down about ten steps, stopped and became a platform, then continued downward another ten steps in the opposite direction (like a hotel's staircase)...there was no way she could skate down at full speed.

To make matters worse, she hears hurried footsteps clanking on the metal floor. "Bokkun, you go on ahead. Bottom floor." She calmly says. The little creature nods and flies downward. Dusk turns to look back towards the hall and positions herself to block the stairway down.

A couple seconds pass and sure enough, Sonic comes bolting down the hallway at her. From the looks of it, he's not going to do anything fancy like a punch, he's just going to do a full-on tackle. Dusk waits for him to get close enough, the jumps to the side, intending for Sonic to go tumbling down the stairs.

That did happen...just not how she expected. When she jumped, Sonic didn't try slowing down, but what he did do was shoot an arm out and grab her ankle. Sonic went tumbling down the stairs and he yanked Dusk down with him.

They both fall down the first set of stairs, Sonic bangs his head on the wall, and Dusk lands on top of him. Having not hit her head, Dusk quickly gets up and hurries down the stairs. Sonic follows, but is moving a little slowly because of his throbbing head.

Dusk gets to the bottom first and finds Bokkun floating there. "Come on!" she yells and skates down the hallway with Bokkun in tow. They quickly round a corner and disappear from view.

Sonic walks down into the hallway a minute later, and sees at least ten different ways she could've gone. With a scowl and several choice words mumbled, he turns around and starts back up the stairs to see how well his friends were faring.

Dusk and Bokkun turn left or right every now and then, and eventually come to an enormous room with one huge machine inside. The machine was at least the size of a skyscraper that was tipped over, and probably as tall as one, but Dusk didn't have time to gawk at it...Eggman noticed his creation enter and quickly flew over to her in his chair.

"Ah, you're finally here. Good. Dusk, I present the Egg Battleship!" Eggman exclaims proudly.

"How in..." She's cut off when Eggman says, "No time for questions. We have to escape on it." He motions for her to jump onto the wing of his chair. She does so and they fly up to the top of the mammoth ship.

The top of it was roughly divided into two halves. The front half was smooth and flat, probably to let flying robots take off and land, but the rear half was a large curvy building with a tower near the end. Eggman flies over the flattened part and lets Dusk jump down. "Now we leave." he says while pressing a button in his chair.

_Egg-Battleship launching protocol intiated. Egg Battleship, now deploying._ A computerized voice says. A loud rumbling fills the room and the Egg Battleship begins shaking. With a loud roar several large jet engines on the bottom turn on and begin lifting the ship upwards. At the same time, the roof of the room splits and begins sliding apart, revealing the sky.

The jets begin firing harder now and the Egg Battleship lifts even higher. As the flight deck clears the room, Dusk looks around and sees the old base about 300 feet away.

Slowly more and more of the ship leaves the room, until about two minutes later, its out in the open. Dusk walks up to the edge and looks down at the old base as it gets left behind. She smiles knowing that Sonic and his ambitious attack was beaten, then her face falls.

The small form of the X-Tornado starts moving, then it takes off and starts getting larger.

"Eggman! They're still attacking!" She yells. Eggman grunts and presses another button. The large hangar doors in the side of the building open and the Egg Ptera takes off, set to attack the X-Tornado.

Down below, the X-Tornado is flying up at the Egg Battleship. Tails in the pilot seat, Rouge right behind him, and Sonic, Amy, Knuckles, and Shadow out on the wings. Silver and Blaze stay behind on the ground.

"Hang on everyone. We're almost up there." Tails says. Just as he finishes, the Egg Ptera flies within inches of the right wings and nearly blows Sonic and Amy off had Sonic not grabbed the plane's wing and her wrist.

"Tails!" Sonic yells, "That robot's coming back!" Like he said the Egg Ptera turned around and started chasing the X-Tornado.

"I'll try to keep it busy." Knuckles says. With a yell he jumps off the X-Tornado and lands on the Egg Ptera's head. He thrusts his fist into one of the eyes and shatters it which causes the robot to screech and start jerking around. The echidna holds on as long as he can, but the panel he was holding onto breaks away. Knuckles starts falling, but rights himself and softly glides down to the ground, avoiding injury.

With half of its vision gone the Egg Ptera has to stop for a second to adjust. The X-Tornado was only in view of the eye that Knuckles smashed, so the robot lost them. A minute passes, and the X-Tornado flies into view of the functioning one. The robot screeches and begins pursuing the plane again.

The X-Tornado manages to scream past the top of the Egg Battleship and the slipstream it creates is strong enough to force Dusk to shield her eyes. Two seconds after the X-Tornado speeds by, the Egg Ptera does the same, this time Dusk is blown back a few feet.

The two flying machines soar about twenty feet above the flight deck of the Egg Battleship before the pterosaur attacks. A missile launcher pops out of the back of the machine and three rockets are fired off. Before any of the passengers on the plane can react, the three missiles score a hit. The first two destroy both engines, and the third blows apart the rear half.

Not only did the explosions blow the three hedgehogs off of the X-Tornado, but without engines the plane also starts plummeting toward the ground.

Tails and Rouge manage to open the cockpit and jump out, allowing the wreck of the X-Tornado to fall away. Both are hovering in midair when the limp forms of Sonic and Shadow fall past them. The fox and the bat dive after their friends and manage to catch up with them about 100 feet from the ground. Tails grabs Sonic's wrist, Rouge grabs Shadow around the upper arm. Both Tails and Rouge manage to slow down, but they can't stop in time.

The four Mobians collide with the ground and wind up in a pile, Sonic and Tails on the bottom, Rouge on top of them, and Shadow on top of her. The foursome groan and get up as Blaze, Silver, and Knuckles run up to them.

"Are you guys okay?" Knuckles ask while steadying Rouge. Sonic bent up a couple of his quills when he hit the ground, Tails had injured both ankles, Rouge's left wing was bent up (possibly from being compressed between Tails and her body), and Shadow's arm was swelling where Rouge's hands were. All of them were injured, but not severely.

"I think so..." Rouge groans and puts a hand to her temple, "Pretty sure I slammed my head against something when I landed."

"Probably didn't help that you got squished between us guys." Shadow mumbles. The explosion that threw him from the X-Tornado apparently knocked off his sense of balance, since he was teetering back and forth.

"Wait a minute...where's Amy?" Blaze asks. Everyone looks around...Amy's nowhere in the crowd. Silver hurries over to the wreck of the X-Tornado. He sifts through the remainder of the plane, but finds nothing.

"She's not over here!" He yells to the crowd.

"If Amy's not with us, and she's not in the X-Tornado...then that means..." Sonic's voice trails off as he looks at the ascending Egg-Battleship above him. The others follow suit as they realize where she is...up there with Eggman and Dusk.

**Okay, I know I said Dusk and Shadow were possibly going to fight again and originally I was going to do that here. I had this idea for a big fight between them up on the flight deck, but this chapter just didn't work out that way. They will fight, but I'm postponing it for a couple more chapters...sorry if you were awaiting it here.**


	13. Imprisonment

Chapter 13 Imprisonment

Amy was lying unconcious. Even though her body wasn't moving, her mind (or at least the subconscious part) was trying to process what had happened.

She remembered being out on the wings of the X-Tornado, then several quick booms came from behind and she, Sonic, and Shadow turned to see three missiles flying at them. Before any of them could react the missiles hit and blew up the back of the plane.

She remembered being thrown from the X-Tornado by the explosions, and her falling. She must've gone unconscious during the falling 'cuz after that there was a blank.

Slowly her body started to wake up. First to come back was feeling, and Amy could feel some kind of mattress beneath her. _Why am I on a mattress? Did Sonic or someone else catch me and take me to a hospital?_

Next to return was hearing, although besides a slight ringing noise in her ears it was quiet. Slowly the rest of her senses returned, the last two to come back were sight and motion. Her eyes flickered open and she saw a stark metal ceiling above her.

"Wha...where?" she groans. She sits up and immediately a throbbing feeling enters her head, causing her to moan, "Oh my head..."

"Well, well, Mrs. Sleepyhead finally woke up." Came a voice behind her. Amy turned to see Dusk standing there, on the other side of a wall of bars, leaning coolly against the wall. She laughs a little, "Took you long enough...you were out for a good five hours, and for nearly all of that I've been here waiting for you to wake up."

"Where am I?" Amy asks. She tried to sound assertive, but failed because of a weakness in her legs and her throbbing head.

"Hmm...lets see. Three of the walls around you are solid metal, and the fourth is nothing but closely set vertical bars...where do ya think you are?!" Dusk asks sarcastically. "You're in jail." she says. Her body barely moved while she spoke, Dusk was still leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.

"How did I end up here?" Amy asks, this time normally. It was too hard to sound demanding right now.

Dusk finally moves, if only to turn her head to look at the captive hedgehog. "After the Egg Ptera blew apart the X-Tornado, you, Sonic, and Shadow were thrown from the crashing plane. Sonic and Shadow plummeted past the Egg Battleship, but you landed on the flight deck. Banged your head pretty hard on the metal too, which is probably what knocked you out."

Amy reaches up to her head to feel for a bump. She didn't feel a bump, but she did notice a couple bandages wrapped around her head at forehead height. "Where did these come from?"

"Me." Dusk replies. "Eggman only told me to throw you into that cell, but while I was carrying you I noticed a nasty cut right about here." She draws a line with her fingertip from just behind the left temple to just above the halfway point of the left eyebrow. "So I patched you up. And before you open your mouth again, let me just say...yes I knew what I was doing. I pretty much had to learn how to tend to wounds since Eggman and everyone else didn't know anything about that."

Strength was finally coming back to Amy when her legs stopped shaking. When she felt strong enough, she walked over to the bars. "So what now? Am I just a prisoner to you and that horrid man you've allied with?"

Dusk sighs and shakes her head, "Eggman is not a horrid person. He's a great scientist who only wants to help the world. You, Sonic, and your allies are the horrid ones...always trying to destroy a kind man's work and dreams." Rather surprisingly to Amy, Dusk was perfectly calm when she said that. The purple hedgehog didn't snap, growl, snarl, or anything. "But to answer your question, yes you are a prisoner now. So get used to your accomidations."

Dusk starts walking away from the cell, leaving Amy to follow her with her eyes. Amy starts to open her mouth, but is stopped when Dusk says, "Unfortunately yes, Sonic and Shadow are fine. Tails and Rouge caught them while they were falling. The X-Tornado? Not so much." without even looking over her shoulder. A door at the end of the room slides open, Dusk walks through, and it shuts.

Amy sighs and sits down on the lumpy mattress. "Great...I'm a prisoner...yet again."

* * *

Dusk's gone for awhile...at least two hours. Then the door opens and the purple hedgehog strolls back in, this time with a small bowl in her hands.

Dusk slips the bowl between the bars and sets it down. "Dinner." she mumbles, and resumes her former pose against the wall.

Amy looked at the bowl and was repulsed. In it was this weird greenish slop, with a spoon stuck partway in. Amy walked over to the bowl and took a sniff, she nearly hurled after that.

"Ugh, gross! What is this stuff?"

"Don't ask me I didn't cook it. Eggman made it." Dusk answers, "Hope you can keep it down."

Amy grimaced a little, then looked back at 'dinner'. As much as she didn't want to eat it, her stomach was empty and she needed to eat something. Slowly Amy lifted a spoonful of the...food...and put it in her mouth.

It was bitter; it tasted horrible; she almost spewed what was left in her belly; but Amy still swallowed the spoonful. "Ugh. I didn't think it could taste worse then it smelled...boy was I wrong."

Dusk can't help but laugh a little at the comment. "Don't worry. I tried a little from the pot of the stuff in the galley, and he's made a _lot_ worse."

Amy can only stand a couple more spoonfuls before she pushes the bowl away. "I swear, if a little bit more of that junk gets in my mouth, I'm hurling."

Dusk creates a small shadow tentacle to lift the bowl up and through the bars. She picks up the bowl and leaves without a word.

After the 'soosh' of the door closing is heard, Amy lets out a long groan. "Not only am I stuck in a cell, but I also have to eat stuff like that? Sonic, please come and save me..." she mumbles.

Amy climbs onto the lumpy bed, and (with a little difficulty) falls asleep.

* * *

The next day doesn't go much better. Breakfast was more of the weird goop, and had her stomach not been growling Amy wouldn't have eaten it.

Again she's left alone. As soon as the door closes, Amy pounds on the bars with her hammer. All that happens in she hurts her hands. The pink hedgehog doesn't even try the walls...and is reduced to twiddling her thumbs for the next three hours.

The door's heard, and Dusk strolls in. This time a folding chair is tucked under one arm.

"Great, what now?" Amy asks in a completely unamused voice.

"I'm here to chat." Dusk replies while setting up the chair. Amy gives her purple counterpart a funny look. "Alright look. Eggman's making me either watch you or babysit Bokkun. At least we can do something to pass the time." She says while sitting down.

Amy replies with a snort. "Not interested huh?" Another snort. "Come on, there's got to be something you want to talk about."

Amy had her back to Dusk, but soon turned around. "Actually there is something. You're a Mobian right?" Dusk nods. "Then didn't your parents tell you about Dr. Eggman when you were a little kid?"

Dusk hesitates and shifts around uncomfortably. She had a feeling Amy was going to ask that, and Dusk knew where this conversation was going and how it would turn out. "Well...I don't really have parents."

"So you're an orphan?"

"Nope."

"Then how..." Amy's cut off.

"Lab."

"What?"

"Eggman created me in a lab." Amy has a blank look on her face. Dusk sighs, "Alright. He created me using modified DNA and a special gel and machine. That machine nurtured my developing body and aged me at a sped up pace. In four days I went from one cell to this sixteen year old body. It also developed my mind as well."

"I guess that can happen. Shadow was made in a similar way. But whose DNA did he use?"

Again Dusk hesitates. "I...don't know." she lies, "He didn't tell me that."

"Mmm. Then...if what you said is true, how can you be so sure that Eggman is telling you the truth?"

"To be honest, I don't know. I believe that he's telling the truth, but at the same time something doesn't seem right about the destructive potential of his robots." Dusk lets out another sigh and silence fills the room.

"You ever felt...alone?" Dusk asks.

Amy blinks a little and looks at Dusk in bewilderment...that question seemed to have come out of nowhere. "Could you repeat that?"

"I asked if you have ever felt alone."

"Umm...I do live by myself in my apartment and it can get lonely, but I hang out with my friends a lot so its not that bad."

Dusk forces out a single laugh, "Friends...that's something I envy about you." Amy gives another confused look. "I mean, sure you are a bad girl...but at least you get to hang out with friends...even if they are bad also. Me? I'm the only girl, teenager, and Mobian in Eggman's team. Not a single friend to be had."

Amy takes a couple seconds to let this sink in, then takes a good, long look at Dusk. Amy always considered that purple hedgehog to be a criminal, nothing but arrogance and bad intentions...but now she seemed totally different. Dusk was slumped down in the chair, her face was looking down and away from the cell, and Amy could've sworn she saw a couple tears glinting in the light.

"Yea...its gets really lonely sometimes." She says sadly.

"You know Dusk. I might be a little wrong in my opinion on you." Dusk looks up at the pink hedgehog. "When we fought in Station Square, you seemed so cocky and arrogant that I thought you were absolutely no fun to be around...but you don't seem that way right now."

Amy gets up and walks over to the bars, "You...you really mean what you said about being lonely huh?" Dusk gives a quick nod. Amy extends a hand between the bars. "Want to stop feeling that way?"

Dusk looks from Amy's slightly smiling face to her hand, then back to her face. "You mean it?" A small nod is her answer. Dusk slowly extends her hand towards Amy's, but suddenly stops and pulls it away while averting her gaze.

"What's wrong?"

"I...I can't. I wasn't completely honest with you. When I said I didn't know whose DNA Eggman used..."

Amy pulls her hand back into the cell, "So you do know?" Dusk nods "Then who?"

Dusk takes a deep breath, "Yours."

It takes Amy a couple seconds to fully process that, but when she does she's shocked. "He used my DNA?!" She asks loudly. Dusk nods. "But...but how did he..."

"I don't know how he got a sample. All he told me was that he modified your DNA to create me."

"I...I feel...so violated. Part of me, what makes me unique was stolen and used to create someone else? I...I just..." Amy can't find the right words and sinks down to her knees. "Get out." she says quietly.

"Huh?"

"I said..get out!" Amy yells, "I am so mad at Eggman right now for taking my DNA and using it to create something as awful as you! Just get away from me and stay out of my sight!" she shrieks at her purple counterpart.

Dusk shuts her eyes, quietly gets up, and leaves. Dusk moved quickly and quietly through the hallways of the flying fortress and easily comes to her room in two minutes. The door opens and reveals a room identical to the one at the old base (which was natural since Eggman had several of his robots collect the stuff in Dusk's old room and move it into her new one).

Dusk enters and takes off her skates. She presses a button on the wall beside the door. A small beep is heard and the light above it changes from green to red, showing that the door is locked.

The tears begin to fall as Dusk walks over to her bed. She lies down, buries her face in her pillow, and begins silently weeping.

Why she was crying like this, Dusk didn't know. All she did know was that something inside hurt...and all she could do to ease the pain was to cry.

**Normally I don't update this fast, but I actually wrote most of this chapter shortly after I posted the last one. Guess I have a lot of inspiration built up since I've already started the next chapter. Anyway, keep reviewing! Just don't flame.**


	14. A Change of Heart

Chapter 14 A Change of Heart

Amy seemed to have gotten her wish, over the next week Dusk never showed up. Either Bokkun, or Decoe and Bocoe would bring her the 'food', but they didn't act the way Dusk would.

While Dusk would mostly stay silent, Decoe and Bocoe would rattle on and on about how great Eggman is and how powerful his newest robots were. Bokkun was the most obnoxious of them, always teasing Amy about her being locked up and occasionally tossing a small bomb in the cell with her.

Amy didn't admit it aloud, but she actually missed Dusk a little. Amy didn't like Dusk in the least, and learning that Dusk came from her DNA made it worse...but at least Dusk wasn't annoying. She stayed quiet, and leaned against the wall...only giving out the occasional comment. That was much better then (or at least preferable to) a couple chatterboxes or a bomb throwing imp.

* * *

Since Amy exploded at her, Dusk had seemed...different, less cheery. During her training sessions Dusk wouldn't taunt the robots like she normally would, she just fought in silence...and even then it seemed like Dusk wasn't giving it her all.

The same applied to whatever job Eggman assigned her. Cleaning the kitchen, checking on the robots, tending to a wound Bokkun gave himself, she was silent through all of them. Whenever she wasn't needed Dusk would usually be in her room or out on the flight deck. It appeared that she was staring off into space, but in reality she was trying to sort things out in her mind.

Then one night came where she seemed to finally return to normal...

* * *

Bokkun had just left the prison with a nearly full bowl of goop in his hands and a very large smirk plastered on his face. Inside, Amy was brushing the soot from another one of his prank bombs off of her red dress.

"Ooh, if ever get out of here...that little pest is going to get it." she mutters while brushing the soot away.

Amy hears the door open and looks to see a very unwanted guest. "What the hell do you want?" Amy growls at Dusk. Dusk says nothing, she simply walks up to the cell and extends a tentacle from her shadow through the bars. Before Amy could get away, the tentacle shoots forward and wraps around her, binding her arms against her body.

"You are coming with me." Dusk says hollowly. She presses a combination into a keypad on the wall besides Amy's cell. A 'ding' is heard and the bars retract into the ceiling. "Try anything funny and I will constrict the shadow." She says seriously.

Dusk begins walking away. Since the tentacle is attached to her shadow, it tugs at Amy who is forced to begin walking after Dusk.

Together the two hedgehogs walk through the winding hallways of the Egg Battleship. Dusk stays silent the whole way. Amy stays the same way...she didn't want to say anything to offend Dusk since it would mean she gets crushed.

After about five minutes of walking the pair came to a set of double doors. Dusk presses a button that causes the doors to slide open, and the duo walk out onto the flight deck. The door closes behind them.

Finally Amy speaks, "Great, what are you going to do? Toss me overboard?" Surprisingly Dusk doesn't even go near the edge. She takes Amy to the center of the flight deck and lowers her hand, causing the shadow to dissolve.

"You're removing my restraint?" Amy asks in confusion, "Why?"

"Believe it or not, I'm trusting you to not attack. Actually, the only reason I had you bound was because I didn't want you running off and causing trouble."

"Then why bring me out here?" Dusk answers by gesturing upwards. Amy looks up and gasps.

Above them were thousands of twinkling stars, even the faintest of them showed up. There weren't any clouds to block their view either, and a new moon was out tonight leaving the only things above them were the stars.

"I figured you could use a change of scenery from the metal cell." Dusk admits.

"This view is nice, but I still don't like you." Amy says dryly.

"I know." Amy lowers her head to look at Dusk, "...and I'm sorry...for lying to you."

Amy doesn't respond right away, instead choosing to watch her copy for a couple seconds. Dusk's voice sounded sincere, but she was looking downward so her face was hidden. Amy was also pretty sure she heard a sniffle or two.

"Honestly Amy, I didn't mean to upset you when I told the truth, but that lie about the DNA was the only one I spoke, and even then I only lied to keep from upsetting you...but we both know how that turned out."

Now Amy's feeling guilty...Dusk really wasn't as bad as she thought. The purple hedgehog was only trying to keep her feelings from being hurt, and Amy exploded at her in response.

"No Dusk...I should be the one who's sorry." Amy admits, causing Dusk to look up. "I was only mad at Eggman for doing what he did...I never meant to explode at you. Guess I let my anger at Eggman out on you. Sorry."

"Its alright. You acted the way I figured you would, but...I still feel bad for hurting you."

Amy waves her hand and says, "What's done is done."

About a minute passes in awkward silence. "So..." Amy holds out her hand, "...friends?"

"You really want me for a friend?" Dusk asks.

Amy nods, "Sure." Dusk smiles a little and shakes Amy's hand.

"I'll tell you this now, I can't help you escape. But I will try to make your stay at least...bearable."

"Thanks. And first to go should be that awful goop." Amy says and shudders a little.

Dusk laughs a little, "I know. It almost seems like Eggman's incapable of reading a cookbook."

Now Amy laughs, "Exactly! He can build all of these fancy robots, but he can't cook!" Both hedgehogs burst out laughing and it takes them a minute to calm down.

"Seriously though Dusk, I really shouldn't have yelled at you." Dusk waves her hand, silently saying 'its okay'. "But its strange...I'm both mad, and happy at the same time."

"How so?"

"Well, I'm really mad at Eggman for what he did. But also happy that...that I have a sister now." Dusk gives Amy a curious look.

"A...sister?" Dusk repeats.

"Yea...you may be on the wrong team, but its still nice having a little family."

"You still have it backwards, but you're right. It is nice having a sister."

Dusk lies down on the flight deck and looks up at the stars. "Care to join me?"

"And do what?"

"Make shapes out of the stars. Before this ship launched I did it with the clouds, but stars seem more entertaining."

Amy smiles and lays down beside her sis. The two spend at least half-an-hour drawing patterns in the night sky. They find both normal constellations and create their own which include a Chaos Emerald, Eggman's face in a scowl, and a chao head. Soon the ideas run out, and Amy and Dusk are just lying there, enjoying the cool night air.

"Hey Amy?"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks for doing this with me. Whenever I did it alone, I always wished I could do it with someone else. With you it is so much more fun."

Amy snickers a little, "You're right, stargazing is fun with someone else."

"So you've only done it..."

"Alone, yes." Amy finishes, "I've always wanted to go stargazing with Sonic, but he doesn't like sitting still. He always has to dart around and be moving." Amy sighs, "Sometimes I just wish he'd spend one little night with me on a date. We don't have to go anywhere special or fancy, I'd just like him to slow down for a night."

"Sounds like you've got it bad for him." Dusk states.

Amy lets out a couple laughs, "You've got no idea." Dusk chuckles a little and the sisters lie there for a couple more minutes.

"Sorry Amy, but I think its time we head back inside." Dusk says while standing. Amy also gets up and places her arms by her sides.

"Not so tight this time."

Dusk smiles and forms another tentacle. She carefully wraps it around Amy's body and the two of them walk back to the brig.

Amy walks into her cell and Dusk lowers the bars again. "I'll see what I can do about breakfast tomorrow." she says while making the tentacle disappear. Dusk turns to leave and gets about halfway before Amy calls out to her.

"Hey Dusk? Did Eggman ask you to take me out of the cell?"

Dusk stops for a second, then turns and shows a mischievous smile. "No."

"Does he know you did?"

"No."

"Are you allowed to?"

"...no." Both sisters laugh a little, then Dusk leaves and Amy lies down on the mattress.

A little bit of time passes, and Amy shuts her eyes in an effort to fall asleep. Shortly after she closes her eyes, Amy feels something soft land on her head.

Upon opening her eyes all she can see is red and Amy flails a little to shake the object off her. It falls to the floor and Amy sees that its a deep red blanket. She turns and sees Dusk quietly walking away. "Good night Amy." is all the purple hedgehog says.

"Good night Dusk." Amy replies. She picks up the blanket, spreads it out over her body, and sighs at the extra warmth it provides. Despite the uncomfortable mattress, Amy's sleeping peacefully in a couple minutes.

**Yes, I do consider Dusk and Amy sisters. First off, Dusk can't be Amy's 'daughter' because Dusk's DNA is modified Amy DNA, not half-Amy half-something else. Cousin doesn't fit either, again because Dusk's DNA is mostly Amy's, with just a few key differences. Cousins have barely similar DNA...Dusk and Amy's are too similar for cousins. That pretty much leaves sister. Normal sisters share most portions of DNA, but still have differences...just like Amy and Dusk.**

**And as for how their friendship and relationship effects one another, be sure to keep an eye here!**


	15. A Rematch

**Yes, this is a new Chapter 15. I had this one really good idea for Shadow's plan, but once I wrote it, it was awful. So I just decided to totally rebuild Chapter 15. I'm liking this one much better for two reasons, one: its much smoother throughout its length and all of the characters kinda behave the way they should, and two: Its the rematch I promised between Shadow and Dusk.**

**While I've got your attention, two more things: Chapter 16 picks up immediately after Chapter 15 ends so they're kinda like two parts of the same event, and I do not own Sonic, Shadow, or any related characters...just Dusk.**

Chapter 15 A Rematch

It has been roughly a month since Amy and Dusk forgave one another, and in that time Dusk had fought against Sonic and the others several times, but did her best to avoid hurting them too badly...they _were_ her sister's friends after all.

Currently the Egg-Battleship is cruising along at 5000 feet, its usual flying altitude. With the X-Tornado still wrecked, there were no military planes that could reach it and get past the auto-defenses. Right now, Eggman was totally untouchable and busy trying to figure out where Sonic moved his emeralds.

Decoe and Bocoe were maintaining the power source for the Egg Battleship, a giant machine that held the Master Emerald. Bokkun was...somewhere within the twisting maze of hallways, probably lost. Dusk was down in the brig, happily chatting with her sister.

Like Dusk promised, Amy was now being treated much better...at least when the midnight purple hedgehog was around. Decoe, Bocoe, and Bokkun were still as annoying as ever, and they still brought the 'Eggman goop' (as Amy and Dusk nicknamed it). However after they had left, Dusk would sneak in some real food. Dusk may not have been the greatest cook, but at least what she brought was edible.

Nothing seemed to be bad this day. Sure, there was a storm outside, but the ship was protected from lightning strikes so not one of the five important passengers took a concern. However, there's a much, much more dangerous threat out today. One that stands on two legs, is very powerful, and has a grudge.

Shadow Chaos Controls about a foot above the flight deck of the Egg-Battleship, and hangs in the air for a second before softly landing. "Hmm, no guards. Guess that means I can get in without trouble." Shadow comments after quickly looking around. He tosses the gray Chaos Emerald in his hand up in the air and catches it. "It also means that you'll be safer." he mumbles before tucking the emerald into his quills.

Shadow skates up to the doorway inside and uses a weaker Chaos Control to get in without setting the alarms off.

* * *

"So...Why do you like Sonic so much?" Dusk asks her pink counterpart.

"Aw come on Dusk, you don't want to hear me talk about stuff like that." Amy replies.

"What's the matter sis? Embarassed?" Dusk asks slyly, "Come on, I want to know."

"Well..." Amy's cut off when Dusk's small wrist device starts beeping.

"Oh, hold on a sec." Dusk says before pressing a button on it. "Hey Eggman, what'cha need?"

"Dusk we have a security breach on C-deck. Shadow has somehow gotten on-board." Eggman's voice replies.

"Say what?! How did he get up here without a plane?!" Dusk asks in surprise, "Never mind, just tell me where he is so I can pound him."

"He's moving through the hallways of the C-deck, and appears to be heading to the main elevators. Don't worry, I've shut them off and sent robots his way."

"Alright, I'm down on E-deck right now. I'm on my way, but keep me updated if he moves." Dusk says before clicking the intercom on her device off. "Sorry sis, I gotta go."

Dusk starts running towards the door, but is stopped when Amy yells, "Wait!" Dusk stops and looks back. "Don't rough Shadow up too much. I might not like him that much, but he's still a friend of mine." Amy says.

"Don't stress about it, I'll get him off the ship without hurting him...much." Dusk says before darting out the door.

Amy watches her sister run off before roughly sitting down onto the mattress. "I don't want Shadow to get hurt, but I don't want her to get hurt either." she mumbles. "I don't know who I want to come back."

* * *

Dusk hurridly skates towards one of the back-up elevators. On her way the device starts beeping again, and Dusk turns it back on.

"Dusk. Shadow has dropped down to D-deck, eastern wing. And I know that now isn't the time to ask, but have you gotten any information out of Amy?" Eggman asks.

Dusk exaggerates a groan, "No Eggman not yet."

"It has been a couple weeks since I told you to start speaking with her, what's taking so long?"

"Look, I have to fully earn her trust first. I can't just pop in and ask 'So, where are you keeping your other emeralds?' and expect her to tell me."

A faint groan is heard through the device, "Dusk I've given you plenty of time, so after Shadow is..."

"Wha-what?" Dusk asks, cutting Eggman off. "But..." She starts mimicking the sound of static, "I (zzt) I think the ba(kzzt) the batteries are drained...(kzzt-zzt)" Dusk turns the device off. "Eggman's not going to like that, but I really can't talk with him right now." She mutters while coming up to the elevator.

Luckily the elevator was already at her level, so she boarded and pressed the button for D-deck, then the close-door button. After a quick ten second ride, the doors re-open and Dusk takes off like a bullet, all that's seen coming out of the elevator is a purple blur. She shoots around corner after corner, speeding down the hallways and jumping over the occasional robot that got in her way.

Two minutes after leaving the elevator Dusk enters the east wing of D-deck, the robot-component-testing wing. Dusk slides to a stop at the first major intersection of the wing and looks down the three pathways she could choose from. _Of course Shadow would have to come to the most dangerous place on the ship first..._ She thinks sarcastically.

Down the hallway to her left she saw an Egg-Tortoise (pretty much a slow moving block of steel with an entire armory worth of weapons jutting out of its shell) moving along. The right hallway provided a view of two Egg-Moths (flying robots that have various mists and fogs that range from smoke to sleeping gas to paralyzing powder) fluttering around. The hallway in front of her however, showed the remnents of some robot...probably one that Shadow destroyed.

Dusk walks down the front hallway, checking into the various siderooms for the black and red hedgehog, but apart from various experiments trashed...nothing. Dusk searches a good fifty percent of the wing, but only finds broken robots or functioning ones.

Despite knowing that she has the element of surprise...Dusk starts feeling a little nervous. Somewhere nearby was a very dangerous hedgehog, one that could easily tear this ship apart if he wanted to.

After a couple more minutes of searching, Dusk comes back to the first intersection. "Great...well only one way to go now." Before she could take another step, something rams into her from behind, throwing her down the left hallway. She's clearly hit hard, since Dusk flies the entire twenty feet of the hallway and still slams into the wall at the end hard enough to cause a nasty metallic thud.

Groaning from the pain, Dusk flips herself around just in time to Shadow appear while walking towards her. _Crap...he caught me by surprise._ "Hey Shadow, kinda nice seeing you again." she says while standing upright.

"Guess that makes one of us." he says back in what seems like a growl. The instant after her says that, he thrusts his hand forward and fires about ten Chaos Spears at her. Dusk barely manages to get out of the way and quickly runs away down the hallway beside her. Shadow's not that far behind her.

Dusk quickly scrambles into one of the side-rooms, and frantically searches around for something to hide behind or use. Luckily, this happened to be a weapons test-room and a laser cannon was all hooked up and ready to fire. Dusk hurries over to the control console, aims the cannon at the doorway, and rests a finger on the 'fire' button.

The instant she sees him come around the doorway, Dusk blasts Shadow with the cannon. Being caught off guard, Shadow can't dodge and issues a loud grunt of pain when the cannon nails him in the chest, forcing him back out the doorway and slamming him into the wall opposite the door.

The weapon overheats after five seconds and the beam shuts off. Taking advantage of Shadow's momentary disorientation, Dusk speeds out the door and down the hall. She gets a three second headstart before Shadow begins chasing her.

Dusk has no destination in mind, no special room she could run to that would give her an edge. She's far more concerned with staying alive to think of anyplace that she could run to, and the Chaos Spears that are whizzing within an inch of her person aren't helping. "Geez Shadow! What did I do?" Dusk yells without looking back at him.

The only answer she gets is the yelling of "Chaos Spear!" and one of the yellow blades giving her a cut across the rightmost quill on the back of her head.

Dusk and Shadow speed around the corners and down the hallways of the Egg Battleship. Left turns, right turns, up the occasional flight of stairs to the next level, Shadow continued following Dusk and flinging his Chaos Spears. Eventually, out of pure random luck, Dusk and Shadow burst out onto the flight deck.

Now with much more room to move around, Dusk jumps off to the side, then back towards Shadow. As she attempts to kick him from the side, Shadow twists around it then delivers his own kick to her back. With a gasp of pain, Dusk flies forward and skids a little on the metal of the deck

She hears "Chaos Spear!" yelled and rolls out of the way. Less then a second later, several Chaos Spears pierce through the metal that was just underneath her.

Dusk jumps to her feet and starts speeding around Shadow in a circle. Shadow follows her while flinging spear after spear, but the best he can do is rip a couple small tears in the back of her pant legs or shirt, occasionally managing to cut into her skin a little.

Finally Dusk fights back...she forms a tentacle out of Shadow's shadow, but intead of hitting him with it, she expands it into a narrow pole that's bent in a wide arc. She jumps at the end away from Shadow and, thanks to her momentum, grinds across the pole, slams into Shadow and throws him back towards the main building.

Shadow hits the flight deck, bounces back up into the air, and would've bounced again had he not used his skates to slow down then curled into a ball and shot back towards Dusk. Surprised by his speedy recovery, Dusk doesn't jump out of the way as quickly as she should've. Its not a direct hit, but Shadow does land a glancing blow that causes her to spin like a top.

Dusk somehow lands on both feet, but can't tell which way is which on account of her dizziness. Taking advantage of this, Shadow speeds around and rolls back towards her, but instead of a full-on tackle he un-curls and thrusts his knee upwards into her jaw.

Flung backwards from the attack, Dusk lands and once again skids across the metal surface. She finally comes to a rest right on the edge of the Battleship's flight deck. The dizziness and sudden blow have stunned her...so much so that she doesn't realize that her head is hanging off the side of the ship.

Groaning from pain, dizziness, and lack of strength, Dusk doesn't get up or even try to. Shadow smirks and walks over to her. "You lose." he says when he reaches her side.

Dusk finally processes what's happened, a look of shock comes over her, and she quickly tries to get back up, but is forced back down when Shadow presses his foot down on her. "No. Now you pay." he semi-growls down at her. Then he ominously lifts his hand and forms fifteen Chaos Spears about five feet above her head.

Dusk now is experiencing something new to her...sheer terror. Her head was throbbing from pain, her jaw was swollen and it felt broken, her skin felt raw from the skidding and that probably didn't do that much good for her cuts either, her chest was hurting from the pressure of Shadow's foot, and to top it all off...certain death was dangling just above her face.

She had never been so scared...her training matches, even her previous fights with Sonic and his allies weren't this frightening or dangerous. Her dull-blue irises quvivered within her eyes, almost like they were afraid too. With a faint gasp her eyes quickly shifted to look directly at Shadow's, but his red irises were only visible for a second before a lightning flash behind him shadowed his face and forced her to look away.

Shadow's hand raises a little and so do the spears. "Farewell." he mutters. He's about to drop the spears on her, but, almost like a divine intervention, another lightning bolt flashes behind Dusk, forcing Shadow to flinch and look away. Because of that flinch the spears do drop, but also change their angle on the way down which causes most to miss.

Only three spears hit her, one grazes across her left cheek, the second nips her left temple, and the third cuts her on the eye-blocking quill. About a second passes before either hedgehog moves, and the one that does is Dusk.

Forming a tentacle out of her arm's shadow, she thrusts it forward and into Shadow's jaw, knocking him backwards and off her. Shadow skids a little and Dusk jumps to her feet. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" Dusk yells to Shadow, "I knew you were bad, but that was worse then I thought possible, even from you!"

Shadow doesn't respond, he doesn't grunt or growl or even move a muscle, its like he was frozen in place. "Well? Got nothing to say?" Dusk angrily asks. Still no movement. Now Dusk is the one who lets out a growl. "Say something!" She yells just before speeding at him. When Dusk gets close enough she swings her leg around for a kick, and Shadow only jumps out of the way...he doesn't even try counterattacking.

Dusk launches several more attacks, and each time Shadow only dodges...it was almost like he lost the will to fight. Finally, after dodging a punch, Shadow speaks. "I want to make a deal."

Dusk stops and gives him a strange look, but keeps ready for a surprise attack. "What do you mean?"

"My original mission was to infiltrate the Egg-Battleship, rescue Amy, and take back the Emeralds. I was never supposed to start any fights or draw attention on purpose." Shadow explains, "Here's the deal, I'll leave right now if you let me save Amy."

Dusk quills began to bristle angrily, "What was that last part?" she asks through a growl.

"I will leave with just Amy. You can keep the..." he's cut off when Dusk snarls at him and lunges forward. Caught by surprise Dusk lands a direct hit, a hard punch to his left cheek.

After getting hit and knocked over, Shadow is quickly nailed in the side by Dusk's right foot, and sent skidding across the flight deck.

"What is..." Shadow's cut off again when Dusk yells, "You aren't getting anywhere near Amy!" and lunges at him again.

Shadow is reduced dodging an incredibly fast and violent Dusk, as soon as he lands from a dodge, he has to jump away again to avoid getting bashed by a fist or kick.

He manages to keep this tactic going for about five minutes before he slips up. He lands a little awkwardly, which forces him to slow down a little, allowing Dusk to land a really hard blow to his chest.

With a grunt of pain Shadow is thrown backward, but as he lands, Dusk's knee connects to his chin. Shadow lands and rolls a little ways, finally stopping face-down on the flight deck. He groans a little and manages to lift his body up on his hands and knees. Shadow's cheek felt swollen, his chest stung like never before, and his chin and lower jaw were flaring in pain.

Dusk walks up to the injured Shadow. "I'm not making any deals with you." she growls, "And you're not getting anywhere near Amy."

"Oh yea?" Shadow asks, trying but failing to get up further.

"Yea. First you threaten my life, then try to make a deal? Like I'd actually fall for that. There's no way you're getting my sister."

"Sis-sister?" Shadow repeats, "I don't give a care about..." He's silenced when Dusk's shoe slams into his gut, skidding him further on the flight deck and knocking the wind out of him.

"How dare you even say something like that! My sis was your ally...your friend. Even if she was on the wrong side of the law, she still enjoyed being with you and Sonic and all of your other friends." Dusk growls.

"Wait...are..." Shadow glances up at Dusk out of the corner of his eye and sees her readying another blow. Before she can strike he yells, "Chaos Control!" and disappears.

Dusk looks around blankly, then checks her wrist device. It had been damaged in the fight and wasn't functioning. "Great...I guess I can just hope that jerk teleported back to his allies. I find him again and AH!" she lets out a sudden yell when some pain in her back flares up, from the area where Shadow's Chaos Spears had cut her.

"Never thought I'd have to get bandaged up, guess there's only one person I can trust to do this right..." she mumbles before slowly limping towards the doorway inside.

**Well? How was their rematch? I'll say now that Shadow and Dusk did fight during the month that I jumped over, but those were just minor scuffles. This was their real rematch, and I'm pleased with how it came out...although it could've been a little longer, I admit.**


	16. Mending the Wounds

Chapter 16 Mending the Wounds

Dusk stops by her room to collect a new set of clothes, since the fight ripped her current set to little more than shreds, then departed to the brig, only stopping to collect a first-aid kit.

In her cell Amy had been twidling her thumbs while waiting for Dusk to return. She hears the door open and quickly sits up to see who it is, then gasps and runs to the bars. Dusk limped in and set the clothes and kit down on the folding chair she'd left.

"Oh my lord...Dusk, are you alright?!" Amy asks urgently.

Dusk gives her sis a bit of a forced smile, "Yea...yea. Guess today was a bad day to spar with Shadow." she pauses a little before continuing, "Amy...would you mind...bandaging me up?" She asks in an embarassed tone.

"Of course not. Just open up the cell."

Dusk smiles, and punches in the code on a wall keypad with a shadow tentacle. As the bars retract, Amy hurries out of the cell and over to her sis, then helps the purple hedgehog over to the bed.

"Where did Shadow get you?" Amy gently asks while Dusk sits down.

Dusk grunts a little from a pain flare-up, but answers, "Mainly the back of my legs and torso, but he did send me skidding and managed to nick my quills up a little." in a normal voice.

Amy hurries over to the chair and brings back the first-aid kit. Dusk lifts her shirt up and off her back, but keeps her arms through the sleeves and covers her chest with the front of it. Amy winces a little when she sees the cuts. There were four of them and all were clean but deep. "Ouch...didn't it hurt when he cut you?"

"I actually didn't notice, guess I was more concerned with trying to keep in one piece to notice them." Dusk replies with a hint of a laugh.

Amy chuckles a little while taking her gloves off. She puts a little anti-bacterial cream on the tip of her index finger and gently rubs it across the cuts. Dusk winces when the cream contacts her skin, but only because it was icy cold.

While the cream soaks in, Dusk allows Amy to check her stomach, but fortuneately the only wounds there are patches where the skin had been rubbed raw from skidding. Amy's a little relieved at that, and gently wraps Dusk's lower torso in medical gauss. Once the cuts were covered, Amy snips away the excess and tapes the free end down.

"There. Is that confortable?" Amy asks.

Dusk leans in several directions, testing her movement limits and how well the gauss stayed in place. It fit snugly to her, but wasn't too constricting. "Very comfortable...how'd you learn to bandage like that?" Dusk asks.

Amy lets out a small laugh, "With all of the bruises and cuts Sonic, Knuckles, and the others get I had to learn how to tend to wounds." The sisters share a laugh before Amy continues, "I'll leave your chest be, no need for me to invade your privacy."

Dusk smiles and replies with, "Thanks."

Over the next ten minutes, Amy checks over most of the remainder of Dusk's body and treats each wound she finds. There were some scrapes on Dusk's shins, a couple of cuts on the upper part of her left arm, and the cuts on her quills and cheek.

With some medicine applied and bandages put on, Dusk puts on her new set of clothes and looks like normal...with the only bandages visible being on her cheek and quills.

"Thanks for patching me up...no way would I let anyone else up here do it." Dusk says while flicking her quills around a little.

"No problem, besides...what kind of sis would I be if I didn't help you?" Amy replies.

"Yea that's true..." Dusk says before yawning, "I need to take a rest." Amy chuckles a little while Dusk walks out of the cell. She only stops to punch the 'shut the bars' code into the keypad to keep Amy penned in, then walks off to her room.

Dusk reaches her room without running across Eggman, Decoe, Bocoe, or Bokkun, and only takes enough time to lock her room's door, throw the ruined wrist-device on the nightstand, and take off her skates before crashing onto the bed. Within two seconds her eyes are shut and Dusk is fast asleep.

She's left alone for a good eight hours...and the only reason she's bothered is for Bokkun to announce dinner.

Dusk gets up with a yawn, stretches a little, and slips back into her skates before leaving for the dining room. She takes about three minutes to reach the room, and that's only because she chooses to walk instead of skate.

As Dusk approaches the doorway, she can hear Eggman, Bokkun, Decoe, and Bocoe conversing. Normally she would've entered whether they were speaking or not, but since it sounds like they're talking about her she waits outside. She was eavesdropping, but only because she was jcurious about what they said about her when she wasn't around.

"Indeed Eggman, you have truly outdone yourself with Dusk...she is much better then all of your other creations." came Decoe's voice. Dusk rolled her eyes at that, she already knew she was better then Eggman's other creations.

A grunt from Eggman was heard before he spoke, "Yes, she is isn't she? After training on that first day she was out of the machine I knew Dusk would be a powerful force, but really surprises me is that she was able to defeat Shadow...several times!"

Dusk rolled her eyes again, it sounded like they complimented her when she wasn't there the same way as if she was there. Dusk was about to enter, but the next sentence from Eggman stopped her.

"Dusk is definitely my most powerful weapon, and through her I will finally control the world and be rid of that goody-two shoes Sonic and his friends."

_Whoa whoa, back up. Did Eggman just call me a weapon? _Dusk thinks while her body freezes up and a look of shock comes over her, _And did he just call Sonic good? And say he wanted to control the world?_

While Dusk processes this, Bokkun's voice floats around the corner and into her ears. "We're finally going to win! The only thing I don't like about this plan is having to play the part of a good guy." An agreement came from the two robots.

Dusk is standing there, still out of sight, completely in shock. _Amy, Sonic, and the others...they were right...Eggman is out to do bad and he fooled me into helping him. I...I...I was fooled. I am a fool, no...Eggman's the fool for tricking me._ Dusk angrily thinks that last part while clenching a fist before speeding away from the dining room.

She shoots through the hallways of the Egg Battleship at the highest possible speed she could go, while still being able to round corners without hitting walls. In five minutes she reaches the vault holding their Emeralds. The outer door was a large, thick, sturdy hunk of metal that was guarded by two Egg Raptors.

Both let out a hiss when Dusk approaches, but that's only to acknowledge her presence. Dusk walks in between the two large robots and freezes for a couple seconds. Then, quick as lightning, she launches a sharp spear out of her shadow and stabs the Egg-Raptor on her right through its power core.

Before the other could react, Dusk lets the first spear vanish then forms a second out of the working robot's shadow and stabs it in the neck, then forces the tentacle into the body and smashes everything within it. As that tentacle fades away, the two useless robots collapse to the ground. She inputs a code into a small keypad and the vault door opens.

Dusk skates up to the case at the far end of the vault, a small stand that had fourteen indentations...seven for the Chaos Emeralds, and seven for the Sol Emeralds. Dusk looked down into the case and smiled at the five glittering jewels...the green, gray, and purple Chaos Emeralds and the light blue and yellow Sol Emeralds.

The purple hedgehog forms a shadow tentacle raises it up above the case, and brings it down hard. When shadow strikes glass, the casing breaks apart allowing access to the five jewels. Unfortuneately, it also sets off the vault's security system.

As Dusk brushes the broken glass away from the emeralds, four Egg Raptors are elevated into the vault room, and she knows that every other combat robot has been activated and sent towards her. She only manages to grab the two Sol Emeralds before having to flee from the Egg Raptors, who promptly roar and chase after her.

Being much smaller, faster, and more agile then the Egg-Raptors, Dusk easily loses them and quickly destroys any robot that happens to wander into her path. With the blue and yellow jewels in hand, Dusk speeds off not for the flight deck or the escape pods, but to a certain room on E-Deck that held something much more important than the emeralds in hand.

In her cell, Amy was trying to figure out why the alarms had gone off. According to Dusk, Shadow had been booted off the ship, so then who triggered them?

Two minutes after the alarms go off, Dusk flies in and without a word runs up to the keypad and opens Amy's cell.

"Dusk? What's going on?" Amy asks in confusion.

"Long story short, you were right, Eggman's a jerk, and I set off the alarms taking these." Dusk replies while holding out the Sol Emeralds. Before Amy could get another word out, Dusk shoves the emeralds into Amy's hands, scoops the pink hedgehog into her arms, and takes off again...the destination this time is the flight deck.

Five minutes pass and both Amy and Dusk explode out of the doorway and onto the flight deck, skidding to a stop at its halfway point.

Dusk sets Amy down, and mumbles "Sorry, for being so rough."

"That's okay, but could you explain to me what's going on?" Amy asks, then adds, "In detail."

"Alright, after you bandaged me up I went into my room and fell asleep. Then Bokkun woke me up to say dinner was ready. When I reached the doorway to the dining room, I heard Eggman chatting with Bokkun, Decoe, and Bocoe. Since it sounded like they were talking about me, I stayed outside to listen. That's when I heard them talking about the truth, the one that you and your friends told me. I'm going to set things right."

Amy takes a minute to process this, then asks, "By 'set things right' you mean fight against Eggman?" A nod. "Then I'll be at your side 'till he goes down!" Amy exclaims.

Dusk smiles and gives her sis a hug, which is quickly returned.

"Alright so...how are we getting off this flying hunk of metal?"

"We jump."

"Say WHAT?!" Amy yells, "Are you crazy Dusk? We've got to be at least 5000 feet in the air!"

"Not by ourselves, I use my shadow powers to create some way of getting down. Besides the escape pods are locked off when the security system is engaged, and I don't know where Eggman's personal one is so jumping is our only way down."

Amy groans, "So what's the plan for not dying?"

"My first idea was to create a shadow rail from here to the ground, and grind down on it. When get close to the ground, I soften the angle, and we shoot out and skate away."

"Good idea, but there's one problem...I can't grind in these boots."

"So? I just carry you down."

"You sure you can?"

"Got a better idea?" Amy hesitates for a second, then shakes her head. "Alright then, climb on." Dusk says while pointing at her back.

Amy takes a deep breath then climbs onto Dusk's back, wrapping her arms around Dusk's neck and does her best to keep herself up. Dusk winces a little at the weight on her injured back, but holds the pain down.

"Hold on, but don't choke me." Dusk instructs. She gets a nervous "Okay." for an answer.

Dusk takes a deep breath, tightens her grip on the Sol Emeralds, and walks to the edge of the flight deck. A shadowy aura surrounds her right hand as she raises it and her shadow grows out to the edge of the flight deck, then continues on as a rail. It goes straight for a little ways before curving downward.

"Ready?" Dusk asks.

"I probably shouldn't ask this, but have you done this before?" Amy asks nervously.

"Umm...I have grinded before." Dusk says with faked optimism.

"That's not quite what I...AAH!" Amy's statement turns into a scream when Dusk jumps onto the pole and quickly accelerates downward.

Dusk guessed that this wouldn't work, and on the way down she'd have to form some shadow parachute or something, but amazingly the rail begins lengthening as she nears the end, keeping a good two feet between Dusk and the end.

Dusk and Amy shoot downward on the shadow rail at a blisteringly fast speed. They aren't falling straight down, but are pretty close to it. Their fall doesn't last that long, after a little more then a minute the two hedgehogs are a mere hundred feet from the ground. With a flick of her wrist, Dusk changes the angle of the rail to change their vertical decent to a horizontal one when they're five feet from the ground.

After they travel a little ways horizontally, the rail ends and the sisters fly about ten feet before colliding with the ground and skippng a ways. They come to a rest in a pile, the light-blue Sol emerald lying beneath Dusk who was face down. Amy was lying face up on top of her sis and the yellow Sol emerald was lying a couple feet from them.

Both sisters lie there for a minute caught in a mixture of happiness that the plan worked, relief that they aren't dead, and the remnents of the terror they had while falling. Amy groans a little, then weakly sits up.

"Wow...I can't believe that worked." She mutters. "You're a genius Dusk."

"Thanks, but...could you get off me?" Dusk asks with annoyance filling her voice.

Amy looks down, then quickly springs up and blushes. "Sorry." she mutters while Dusk gets up.

"Its okay...at least we're still alive and in one piece right?"

"True, but..." Amy pauses to look around, "I have no idea of where we are."

Dusk looks around a little, "Me neither, but there's a forest over that way." Dusk says while pointing off to her right, "We should head that way, make it harder for any robots that Eggman'll send after us."

Amy agrees with a nod, and the two sisters grab the Sol Emeralds before quickly high-tailing it into the woods.

**Yes! Dusk has finally changed sides and freed Amy! I've been waiting for this part of the story, now the main cast shifts from Eggman to Sonic and co. all I'm going to say about the future of this story, is to keep on it.**


	17. Peace and Despair

Chapter 17 Peace and Despair

Dusk and Amy have been running through the woods for at least two hours, trying to get as far away from Eggman's battleship as possible.

The two sisters finally stop when they find a small clearing in the woods. Amy immediately falls to her knees while panting hard, never had she had to run continuously for such a long period of time. Dusk was panting just as hard as her sis. She was used to the much easier skating motion of her Extreme Gear...having to keep her speed down so Amy wouldn't fall behind, meant Dusk had to run which quickly tired her out.

"Do...do you think...we're safe?" Amy asks in between her gasps.

"Well...we've def...definitely put distance...between Eggman...and us." Dusk wheezes, "But safe? I don't know."

The sisters don't speak for a while, instead preferring to catch their breath. When they finally stop panting, Amy asks, "So, as best I could tell when we up on the Egg Battleship...you changed sides when you heard Eggman talking about the real truth?"

Dusk nods, "I was hanging outside the dining room and out of sight, I was just curious if they would mention anything about me that they wouldn't say if I was around. I thought it would just be some little weakness...you know, something like 'Dusk is an amazing fighter, but she doesn't throw her punches hard enough.' I never thought I'd hear what I did..." she finishes with a sad tone in her voice.

"What did you hear?" Amy asks.

"Well...apart from Eggman saying that Sonic was a goody-two shoes, form which guessed that that applied to all of you, he said that I was nothing but a weapon, and he was going to use me to conquer the world." Dusk turns away from her sister, "That was what hurt the most...hearing that I was nothing more than a weapon to him. Eggman created me, he trained me, and I trusted him and whatever he said...I just feel horrible now." As she finishes Amy can see a few tears roll down Dusk's cheeks.

Amy moves beside her sister, and gently sets a hand down on Dusk's shoulder. "Its okay Dusk, just remember...now Eggman has both of the Rose sisters ticked at him." Dusk smiles a little at her sis and gently pulls Amy in for a hug. After a short hug the pink and purple hedgehogs separate and look each other in the eyes.

"Thanks Amy, you're much better family than Eggman and the others ever could be."

"No problem Dusk. That's what sisters do...we watch out for and help one another."

"Still..." Dusk sighs a little and sits down against a tree, "Do you think Sonic and the others will trust me?"

Amy hesitates a little. "Well..." she says while sitting down on Dusk's right, "To be honest, I doubt they will...but if they see me with you, they might listen to us and at least stand your presence."

"Its a start." Dusk says while shrugging. The sisters sit in silence for a little while, Dusk looking into the light blue Sol Emerald in her hands, and Amy at the yellow Sol in hers.

"So Amy, why do you like Sonic?"

"Hmm?"

"Just because I fought with Shadow, got injured, and learned the truth about things doesn't mean our conversation can't continue. You remember, back in the brig of the Egg Battleship? We were talking when my wrist radio went off?"

"Oh that...well...I really don't know why."

Dusk rolls her eyes, "Come on sis, there's got to be some reason you love him."

"There really isn't a specific reason. I mean, Sonic has saved me plenty of times and he's saved the world even more, but I really just love who he is. He's fun to hang out with, he's really nice, and is just a fun guy to be around." Amy pauses for a second, "I guess I just love everything about Sonic...but sometimes I don't know if he feels the same way."

"You mean he doesn't ask you out?"

Amy laughs a little, "Sonic? Ask me out? About the most affection he's shown to me is returning a hug. If I even so much as try to kiss his cheek he runs away." Amy pauses and looks up at the stars, "Sonic loves to be free. He loves to run out in the wide open spaces, like the wind." Amy dreamily sighs, "Just once I'd like for him to take me along on one of his runs...for just a glimpse at what he can see."

Dusk chuckles a little at the dreamy look on Amy's face. "Why don't you ask?"

"I tried...once."

"And?"

"He said no."

"Well that's a little rude...did he say way?"

Amy shakes her head no, "Before I could ask he sped off. But I'm still going to love him, no matter what he does, I'll always love my Sonniku."

Dusk bursts out laughing when she hears Amy's nickname for Sonic. "Son...Sonniku?" She asks in between her laughs, "Are you serious?"

"What?" Amy asks while shooting her sis a dirty look.

"Nothing, nothing, its...its just that nickname took me by surprise that's all." Dusk chuckles a little bit more before quieting down. "At least you're determined. Maybe if you keep trying, Sonic'll start loving you back."

"I hope so..."

"Aw lighten up Amy." Dusk says while playfully punching her sister in the arm, "He'll come around...eventually."

About an hour passes in idle conversation before the sisters drift off to sleep, the Sol Emeralds safely hidden beneath them. Amy and Dusk are lying beside one another, but Amy is sleeping on her side while Dusk snoozes on her back. Both sisters are enjoying a nice sleep, but Dusk's suddenly turns a little fitful...

* * *

Dusk is standing in a void of nothing...well not quite nothing. She was standing on ground, but there wasn't anything there...and the blue of the sky had changed to a dark purple while the white clouds changed into pitch black ones.

Feeling a little uneasy by this weird, negative-sky that surrounded her in every direction, Dusk feebly calls out, "Hello?"

No answer.

"Hello?" she calls out a little louder.

Still no answer, but as Dusk prepares to call out again, a loud, "HA!" is heard behind her. Dusk quickly spins around to see Sonic standing there, but...not Sonic. It looked like him, but this hedgehog had no color in it at all...just gray.

"Why in the world should I try trust you?" The Sonic look-a-like asks in a snide voice. "You attacked me and my friends and helped Eggman get several Chaos and Sol Emeralds. I'm never going to trust you!" It yells before swiftly back-handing Dusk across the left cheek.

Dusk yells a little from the smack, but looks back towards the Sonic...only to find that it had changed into a color-less form of Blaze.

"You brought destruction to my palace, attacked my friends, and stole two of the Sol Emeralds. There is no way I will ever trust you!" The Blaze mimic yells before sending a torrent of gray fire at Dusk.

Dusk screams from the attack and is thrown backwards. She grunts when she hits the invisible ground, and opens her eyes to see a crowd of people and Mobians standing around her...all of them gray.

"You expect us to believe that you've changed? HA! Like we would ever believe that! You are just as dangerous as Dr. Eggman and should be locked away for the rest of your life!" The crowd yells while coming down on her.

Dusk screams again and quickly pulls her arms and legs over her like a shield, bracing for the weight of the crowd...but it never comes. After a couple seconds Dusk cautiously lowers her arms and legs and opens an eye. "They're...gone? What's going..."

She's cut off from a bright flash of light and the sudden appearance of a gray Shadow standing over her. "You have allied yourself with Dr. Eggman from the beginning, and fought and defeated us. Now you really expect us to believe that you've just changed sides? Never!" It yells while forming several gray Chaos Spears above Dusk's head. "Farewell Dusk!" It yells before the Spears drop.

* * *

Dusk jerks upright with a slight scream and gasp. She sits there, breathing deeply and sharply for almost a minute, her body slightly damp from a cold sweat, frightened too much to do anything.

"It was...just a nightmare?" She asks aloud, "I was only dreaming? But..." Dusk is cut off when she hears Amy's voice from behind her.

"Dusk? What's the matter? I thought you were asleep." Amy says in a groggy voice.

"I'm fine Amy...just a nightmare that's all."

Amy lets out a small groan while she sits up, "You seem pretty rattled...care to talk about it?"

Dusk slightly exhales, "I just...dreamt that your friends said they wouldn't trust me at all, and then they attacked."

"That all of it?" Dusk nods a little.

"It was the fact that it seemed so real that made it frightening...guess my nerves were just a little worked up." She admits.

Amy gently sets a hand down onto Dusk's shoulder, causing her sis to turn towards her, "I think you're really nervous about meeting them, but don't be. I can convince them to trust you, if only a little bit."

Dusk sighs with an unconvinced tone and lies back down with her back to Amy. "I really hope so..." she mumbles while shutting her eyes.

Amy watches her sister with a sympathetic look, then lies down and drifts back to sleep.


	18. A Very Rocky Start

Chapter 18 A Very Rocky Start

Dusk and Amy have been trekking through the woods for at least a day, but by no means did they like it. Their muscles were tired and sore, their stomachs were empty, and their eyes were half-shut from exhaustion.

Dusk was probably the worst off...her wounds hadn't healed completely and every now and then a pain flare up would cause the purple hedgehog to gasp and fall to her knees. Everytime that happened Dusk grit her teeth, stood back up, and marched on.

Amy didn't like seeing her sister push herself like this...all Dusk was going to do was wind up hurting herself even more. Still, Amy couldn't completely blame Dusk, the sooner they found Sonic and the others the sooner the purple hedgehog could heal in peace...but at the same time, Amy wanted her sister to stop and at least rest for a little bit.

The two hedgehogs soldier on for the remainder of this day...the only time they stop is a break to sleep. The next day doesn't go by much better, until just about early evening their luck changes.

"Wait." Dusk says, putting a hand out to stop Amy.

"What?"

Dusk stays silent for a few seconds before responding, "I thought I heard something..." she mumbles while aiming her ears in several directions, "It sounded like a splash."

"You mean like something landing in water?" Dusk quietly nods and continues swiveling her ears around.

"It sounded like it came from this direction..." She mutters while walking off to the right of their old path. Amy shrugs and follows her sis.

A couple minutes of walking pass before Dusk and Amy find something that would help them greatly...a river.

"Alright!" Amy excitidly yells while juping a little. "All we have to do is follow the river and we should find something!"

Dusk smiles at her sister's enthusiasm. "Come on...lets go," she says while starting off downstream. Amy quickly follows.

A hour passes before their good luck seems to turn bad...the stream ran right up to and over the side of a cliff into a pond that was at least fifty feet below them. Both of their hearts sink a little, but Amy suddenly perks up when she notices something a ways away...something familiar.

"Hey...is that...oh my god it is!" She suddenly yells.

"What're you so excited about?" Dusk asks while raising an eyebrow.

"Over there!" Amy eagerly replies while pointing off to the distance. "I can see Tails' workshop! We're at the Mystic Ruins!"

Dusk looks off to where Amy was pointing and sees an odd structure built onto the cliff-top. There appeared to be two parts to it...the lower section was the larger one and was a wide dome, but the other section appeaered to resemble a small house. The smaller part grew out from the dome's upper left corner and several faint lights could be seen coming from the workshop's windows, which meant someone was home.

Dusk grins and turns to her sis. "You ready for another tandem grind?" she asks.

"What? Dusk, no way. You're too hurt."

Dusk waves her hand, "Bah, I can take one more."

"Dusk..."

"Come on Amy, this is the only way to get down from here. Look around, do you see any way we could _climb_ down? And even then do you really want to?"

Amy grimaces a little and looks down. Dusk did have a point...unless you were Knuckles or Rouge, there was no way of climbing down the sheer cliff wall. With a heavy sigh, Amy says, "Alright...but lets make it as short as possible."

Dusk nods and takes control of her shadow. Like she did two days ago on the Egg Battleship, Dusk extends her shadow outward and forms another grind-rail. Rather reluctantly Amy (as carefully as she could) climbs onto Dusk's back. The purple hedgehog winces at the pressure on her sore back, and because she had little strength left her legs almost buckled.

Dusk grit her teeth and walked onto the grind-rail, postioning her feet so the rail fell neatly into the indent on the bottom of her Extreme Gear. She and Amy slowly begin sliding forward, but pick up speed as they start moving downhill.

They grind downward and over the pond nicely, but some pain shoots up Dusk's side when the two are a couple of feet over the ground...causing her to lose her focus on the shadow. The rail suddenly disappears, causing Dusk and Amy to fall and roughly hit the ground.

Dusk screams when her body gets smashed between the ground and Amy, and groans as she skids along the ground a little. Amy had fallen away from Dusk, grunted when she hit the ground, and gasped slightly from scraping the side of her leg on a rough spot of the ground.

The pink hedgehog groans a little as she stands. "Ow...that smarts...but at least Tails' house is nearby," she mumbles. A strained moan is heard from behind her, which causes Amy to turn around and gasp. Dusk was lying on her side, her eyes were shut tight from pain, and her hands were on her sides.

"Dusk!" Amy yells while hurrying over to her sister. "Dusk! Can you walk? Are you okay?" She asks in a panic.

"Ye...yea...I'm fine...it just hurts when you're smashed between the ground and a sister." Another groan comes from Dusk before she continues, "I don't know if I can walk on my own...at least not very far."

Amy kneels down and gently helps Dusk stand. Amy has her left arm over Dusk's shoulders and her right hand just in front of Dusk's stomach, and Dusk is supporting herself with an arm over Amy's shoulders. Just before the two begin begin the walk to safety, Amy notices that Dusk's breathing seemed rather labored.

"You sure you're okay? You really don't look it." Amy says out of concern.

"Okay or not, your friend is right up there..." Dusk uses her free hand to point towards Tails' workshop, "We can get better help from in there."

Amy sighs and begins gently leading Dusk toward the workshop. The workshop was on top of a hill, and the only up to the front door was via a long stairway. What was normally a minute long climb was increased to nearly five to keep Dusk's injuries from getting worse.

When Amy and Dusk finally reach the top, they find several Extreme Gear boards and bikes hovering silently outside the front door...and all of them Amy identified as belonging to her other friends apart from Tails. Everyone was present at Tails' place tonight.

Before Amy knocks on the door, Dusk quietly says, "Amy...I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Dusk, bad feeling or not, you're seriously hurt. This is best way to help you, okay?"

Dusk silently nods and (very weakly) walks away from Amy and props herself up next to the front door, out of sight from the inside. "You go in first and talk to them, then I'll come in."

Now Amy nods and softly walks over to the door. She takes a deep breath, grabs the doorknob, turns it, and walks inside.

* * *

Inside of Tails' workshop, there actually was a reason why everyone was present...Tails had finished the contruction of all of the important components of the X-Tornado, now all that was needed was to link them together. Everyone had come by to celebrate this and the fact that in a few days they could go rescue Amy...so it came as a surprise when Amy strolled in through the front door, just like any other day.

Sonic, Tails, Cream, and everyone else (even Shadow) was surprised to see the pink hedgehog walk in, and had some rather stupid looks frozen to their faces. There were all struck speechless, but Sonic was the first to regain his voice. "Amy?" he weakly asks.

Amy stands there for a minute, then smiles and yells, "Sonniku!" just before tackling the blue hedgehog and wrapping her arms around him. At that instant everyone was given their voices back and began celebrating that she was free and asking how she got away from Eggman.

Amy finally calms everyone down after about a minute and says, "I'll explain how I got free in a minute, but first I want you guys to meet the Mobian that helped me escape." While the others looked baffled, Amy turns to the door and calls, "Alright!"

Dusk (as quickly as she could) comes out from hiding and weakly smiles at the rest of the group. Amy expected everyone to re-release the barrage of questions and (somewhat at least) warmly allow Dusk in. She couldn't have been more wrong...

Several things happened in the instant that Sonic and the others saw Dusk. Tails quickly grabbed Amy and jerked her out of the way, while the others went after Dusk. Shadow (having the quickest reflexes) quickly threw several Chaos Spears at the purple Mobian and Blaze launched a single fireball towards the hedgehog.

In an effort to shield herself (since she couldn't move out of the way) Dusk lowered her head out of range and put her arms up like a shield. The spears cut across the outside of her left arm and the fireball slightly burned the back of Dusk's right hand.

The worse hadn't come yet, before Dusk could even blink, a curled up Sonic had flung himself at her...nailing Dusk right in the chest with a Homing Attack. She screams as her body is knocked backwards, toppling all the way down the stairs and skidding about two feet from the bottom before stopping.

Just as Sonic was about to dart down after Dusk, he's nailed in the back of the head by one of Amy's hammers. Everyone else watches in surprise as Amy jumps forward and blocks the doorway with another hammer in her hands and plenty of rage shining in her eyes..._at them_.

"What the hell did you guys do that for?!" Amy yells angrily at her friends.

"What do you mean?" Knuckles asks.

"Amy, in case you forgot, Dusk is the _enemy_." Rouge states.

"No she's not! She's the one who helped me escape!" While the others are stunned (yet again) Amy quickly glances over her shoulder at her attacked sister. "I'm going to help Dusk and the only reason why any of you should follow me is to help also!" she yells before taking off down the stairs.

The others stand silent for a second, then silently follow Amy down the stairs. They weren't going to help, they just wanted some answers.

The crowd of Mobians reaches the bottom of the stairs and finds Amy kneeling over Dusk, trying to rouse the purple hedgehog.

"Come on Dusk...please, you have to say something." All that Amy gets for a reply is a groan.

"Amy..." Sonic starts to say, but is cut off as Amy spins around and quickly re-forms her hammer.

"Don't any of you come any closer." She menacingly growls.

"Amy, we just want to know what's going on." Silver states.

"That's right. Why are you acting so weird? And why are you protecting one of our enemies?" Cream asks.

"Like I said up there, its thanks to Dusk that I got off the Egg Battleship." Amy replies in a much calmer voice, "I'll explain more later, but right now we have to help her."

"Amy..." a weak voice from behind the pink hedgehog says, getting her to turn around.

"The...emeralds..." is all that Dusk manages to say. Amy quickly kneels down and removes the two Sol Emeralds that Dusk was carrying in her pockets.

"Here..." she says while tossing the emeralds to Blaze, "Dusk stole these from Eggman before she set me free. Does that prove to you all that she's good now?"

No-one answers. "Oh come on guys! Fine, you don't have to trust Dusk, but can you at least let her inside so she can heal in peace?"

"Alright Amy...you can lie her down on my bed." Tails says, finally ending the one-sided conversation.

Amy weakly smiles, turns to Dusk, lifts the purple hedgehog into her arms, and carries her through the crowd (none of which even make an attempt to try and help) and up the stairs. Once she reaches Tails' bedroom, Amy gently lays Dusk out on the bed before turning to leave for a first aid kit.

"Amy." Dusk weakly says, causing her sister to stop and look back. Dusk gives the pink hedgehog a smile before continuing, "...thanks for protecting me."

"Of course Dusk...now you rest, I'll be right back with a first-aid kit." Amy replies just before hurrying off.

Like she said, Amy was back within two minutes with a good sized first-aid kit in hand. After shutting the door for privacy, Amy procedes to bandage Dusk's new wounds as best she could.

The recent two traumas had taken a serious toll...from their grind-rail crash Dusk's sides and back were incredibly swollen, so much so that Amy had to remove the old bandages and replace them. Dusk also obtained a couple scrapes around her left shoulder from that crash, to which Amy gently rubbed an anti-bacterial gel on.

Dusk had obtained several new cuts from Shadow's Chaos Spears. Between her left wrist and left elbow were six clean and deep cuts from the spears, and each one was treated with the anti-bacterial gel before getting bandaged. The back of Dusk's right hand had a rather large burn that was visible through a hole burnt in her glove. The burn (luckily) wasn't serious, but apart from placing an icepack on it there was little Amy could do.

Apart from some bruising and swelling around the base of her neck, Sonic's homing attack did little damage, but all Amy could do was place a couple icepacks to reduce the swelling. After a good fifteen minutes, Amy finally finishes...it didn't take her that long to treat the new wounds, it was slowly and gently moving Dusk around to bandage them that took so long.

With the last bandage in place, Amy steps back a little and feels a small tear form in her eye. There was Dusk, her sister, lying on a bed with labored breathing, almost completely covered in bandages and icepacks, most likely in a lot of pain and discomfort...it was really, really hard on Amy knowing that she couldn't do anymore.

"You...done?" Dusk asks in between her labored breaths.

"Yea Dusk...I'm done." Amy softly replies, "Try and rest, I'll protect you while you heal."

Dusk weakly smiles and (rather shakily) lifts her left hand to give Amy a thumbs-up. The friendly gesture only lasts about a second before Dusk's hand weakly falls to her side.

Amy returns the thumbs-up, then turns and leaves...with one or two tears rolling down her cheeks.

* * *

Sonic and the seven other Mobians were waiting downstairs in the main workshop area, Cream and Blaze were seated on the couch in there, and the others were perched on a few crates or leaning against the walls. All of them perked up and turned to the stiarway when they heard Amy's boots on the wooden stairs.

Amy walks into the room and seats herself on a small crate. "Okay, let me start from the beginning...after I found myself on the Egg-Battleship. When those missiles blew up the X-Tornado, I was thrown off and landed on the deck of the Battleship. I passed out because the next thing I knew was in a jail cell. Dusk was there also, but she wasn't in the cell with me...she was leaning aginst the wall outside, waiting for me to wake up."

"So it was Dusk who put you in the cell?" Tails asks.

Amy nods, "But it wasn't all bad...I got a nasty cut from crashing into the metal deck and Dusk treated it."

"One small good deed doesn't counteract all the bad ones Dusk has done." Shadow says.

"I know, but listen...Dusk didn't know that what she was doing _was_ bad. After Eggman created her..."

"Whoa, hold up." Knuckles interrupts, "What do you mean created?"

"According to Dusk, Eggman created her in his labs thanks to some modified DNA." Amy replies. "After she was released from the machine, Eggman told that we were the bad guys and he was the good one...Dusk believed him because, she didn't know any better. Anyway, as I was spending time in my jail cell Dusk came by a couple of times, and she soon started to show kindness to me."

"Define kindness." Blaze states.

"Well, she'd come by and start up some conversation, bring me actual food, and she'd even let me out of the cell occassionally to go stargazing...finally a couple of days ago, Shadow managed to get onboard and Dusk left to fight him. When she came back, Dusk allowed me to bandage the wounds she got from the fight before she left again. Several hours passed before she returned, and this time the alarms were going off. I could only get one question out before she opened the cell, thrust the Sol Emeralds she had into my hands, and quickly scooped me up and skated off. According to Dusk, she had changed sides and decided to get the two of us out of there. A few days of trekking through the woods, and here we are."

"Alright, that seems...reasonable." Sonic says, "But there are a couple problems..." Sonic is interrupted when Amy speaks back up.

"Let me say a couple more things first...Dusk...she is..." Amy takes a deep breath, "...my sister."

"Say what?!" Everyone in the room yells. "How can she be your sister? You're an only child." Kncukles points out.

"Yes, I know...and I was an only child, but Eggman managed to get a DNA sample of mine, modified it, and used it to produce Dusk. Like it or not guys, the purple hedgehog upstairs is my sis...and she's been seriously hurt, not only physically but also emotionally." Amy's face falls a little and she turns away from her friends.

"Before that night, a couple of days ago, Dusk considered Eggman and the others her family...but then she overheard the real truth. She heard Eggman and his assistants saying that we really were the good guys, and that they were planning to take over the world, but what really stung was this one thing Eggman said. He said that Dusk was nothing more than a weapon to him."

A few tears are visible as they slide down Amy's cheek. "I know that you guys probably don't understand or believe anything of what I said...all that you've experienced of Dusk is when she's fighting, her rough side...but I've experienced more than that. I've heard her laugh, I've seen her cry, I've seen her bleed from training wounds and scuffles. Dusk isn't just another one of Eggman's creations, she's alive...and I'd trust her with my life."

Amy wipes the tears away and turns back to her friends. "Well? Do you guys have anything to say about this?"

Everyone remains silent, which seems to anger Amy a little. She suddenly stands up and stomps her foot, "Fine! You all can just..." Amy angrily grunts and marches upstairs.

About a minute passes before Tails breaks the silence. "So...do we believe Amy?" she asks.

"I don't know." Shadow replies, "As for me, Amy I trust and I believe her...but I don't trust Dusk."

"How so Shadow?" Blaze asks. "Why do you believe Amy's story, but don't trust Dusk?"

"How do we know that she truly changed? This could be some eleborate plan for Eggman to get an edge on us."

Rouge rolls her eyes, "Shadow, you're always so un-trusting."

"So are you saying that you trust her, Rouge?" Knuckles asks.

"I may not be willing to entrust her with my jewel collection, but if she helped out Amy, Dusk can't be all bad."

The conversation continues on through the next hour, and during it Sonic remained rather quiet. Finally, once that hour mark had been hit, he stands up and manages to sneak upstairs without alerting the others.

Sonic silently walks up to the bedroom door, opens it a little ways, and pokes his head in. "Amy?" he softly whispers.

No response.

Sonic slid the door open a little more and entered. He saw Dusk, still lying on the bed, and she appeared to be asleep. Beside the bed was a chair and from his position, Sonic could see that Amy was sitting in it. Normally that chair was off in the corner of the room, so he guessed that Amy had moved it to watch over the purple hedgehog.

Sonic tip-toed up to the chair and found that Amy had fallen asleep too. He smiled a little at her sleeping form...she was slumped against one side of the chair, her head was lying on her left shoulder, her emerald-green eyes shut...Sonic had to admit, she was kinda cute lying like that.

He silently moved over to the closet, got out a spare blanket, and covered Amy with it...Dusk he didn't have to worry about, she was already under a blanket which most likely came from Amy.

The blue hedgehog kneels down a little and gently slides a finger down Amy's cheek, softly tracing a line from her temple to her chin. "Its nice having you back, even if I thought you were acting a little odd at first." he whispers. Sonic then stands and looks over his shoulder at Dusk. _Its you who I should thank for bringing Amy back...Dusk, you're alright._ He thinks just before silently leaving...allowing Amy and Dusk to rest in private.


	19. Recovery

Chapter 19 Recovery

As the sun comes up over Mystic Ruins the next morning, some of the sunlight sneaks through the bedroom window of Tails' workshop and pegs Amy right in the eyes. She sleepily groans and stretches a little in the chair she was in.

"Huh...guess I fell asleep here last night...I didn't even notice." She mumbles while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Then she notices that a blanket was lying over her. "Where did this come from? I didn't cover myself in a blanket last night."

Her thoughts trail off when she sees Dusk, still sleeping peacefully. Her eyes were gently shut, a small smile was drawn over her mouth, and her breathing was steady. Even better, it appeared that most of the swelling had gone down...she seemed to be in much better shape than last night

Amy stands up, allowing the blanket to fall to the floor, and walks beside the bed. "She made it through the night...that's good. I want to wake her up, but its probably best if I let her rest." Amy mumbles while looking at her sister. The pink hedgehog walks over to the window and draws the curtains, then silently leaves for the downstairs level.

After chowing down into a delicious breakfast that Tails made, Amy and her friends move from the dining room into the living room.

"That was such a good meal Tails, thanks a lot." Amy compliments while sitting down on the couch.

"No problem Amy." Tails replies.

Amy looks around a little, "Why do you have so many crates up here? Shouldn't they be down in the main workshop?"

"Well...I had to move them to make room for everything I rebuilt. Once I finish reconstructing the X-Tornado I'll move them back."

Amy and the others chat for a little bit longer, mainly to fill Amy in on what happened after she was captured. She learned that Silver had found the final Chaos Emerald and several of Blaze's guards were investigating a couple of locations where a Sol Emerald may be.

About fifteen minutes after they began talking, soft footsteps are heard from the stairway. The four Mobians turn to see Dusk limp down from the stairs, and immediately Amy hurries over to help support her sister.

"Dusk!" Amy scolds while helping the purple hedgehog over to the couch, "What are you doing out of bed? You should be resting."

"I've rested enough and besides...I got hungry." Dusk replied.

Amy turns and looks at Tails. He catches the silent hint, nods, and leaves for the kitchen. The pink hedgehog then turns back to the purple one and says, "Seriously Dusk, its not good for you to move around so much when you're hurt."

Dusk grunts a little and rolls her eyes. All that Amy does is shoot her a nasty look, then sit down beside her sis.

"Dusk?" Sonic says to get her attention, "Sorry about attacking you last night. When I saw you come around the corner, I assumed that you were here to cause trouble and...you know."

Dusk waves her hand a little. "Its alright...to be honest I was actually expecting you to react that way." she replies. They sit in silence for a couple minutes before Knuckles suddenly stands and leaves. "What's wrong with him?"

"Knuckles? He's always in a sour mood when his emerald is stolen. He's probably gone off looking for something to take his anger out on." Sonic replies, "Don't sweat it."

Dusk manages a weak smile at the blue hedgehog, but her attention is soon drawn to the food that Tails brought with him from the kitchen. Sonic and Amy hold back a chuckle at the sight of a little drool in the corner of Dusk's mouth and the growls of her stomach.

The three Mobians allow Dusk to eat her breakfast in peace, and its only once she's done does Sonic start a conversation that he wasn't looking forward to. "Hey Dusk?"

"Yes Sonic?"

"Its kinda hard to say this, but...not of all us are convinced that you've changed sides. Some of them have a little trust in you, but not all that much."

Dusk sinks down into her seat a little and feels her mood fall. She knew that was their most likely reaction, and she prepared herself for it, but it still wasn't a pleasant thing to hear.

"If it helps any...I trust you." Sonic adds after seeing Dusk's reaction. All the purple hedgehog does to show she heard him is to smile slightly.

A minute passes in silence before Sonic speaks again. "You probably don't want to talk about this right now, but...is there anything that you could tell us about Eggman?"

Dusk grunts with a disapproving tone. "You mean apart from the fact that he's a cold, heartless jerk?" she asks in a harsh tone while crossing her arms.

Sonic cringes a little from the sudden turn in Dusk's mood. "I was actually thinking of something more along the lines of his Battleship's defenses, or where it is..."

Dusk sighs a little, "Eggman didn't tell me too much about his Battleship, but what I do know is that it is bristling with weapons, has an entire army's worth of robots inside, and it rarely stays in the same area for more than a few days."

Sonic leans back on the box he was sitting on and nods a little, showing that he was done. Now Tails speaks up, "So...how are your wounds?"

Dusk shrugs, "They're sore, and my burn stings a little...but I'm not gonna fall to pieces."

"Speaking of them...come on Dusk." Amy says while getting up, "I want to check and see how well they healed during the night."

Dusk says nothing as she gets up and allows her sister to help her upstairs. After the two girls leave the guys' sight, Tails says, "Well...I should get back to work on the X-Tornado. Eggman may not have Amy anymore, but he's still got three Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald."

"You want any help?" Sonic asks as he watches his buddy stroll over to the elevator down to the main workshop.

"Thanks, but I've got it." Tails replies while boarding the elevator.

"Suit yourself." Sonic says before getting up and speeding away through the front door. Tails chuckles a little before pressing the down button. A little whirring is heard as his large elevator descends down into the large basement/workshop/hangar area.

* * *

Up in Tails' bedroom, Dusk was sitting on the bed and Amy was kneeling on the floor behind her, checking on the state of Dusk's back wounds. Amy's pleased at what she saw, the old cuts had almost completely healed themselves...all but one were closed up.

"Its looking very good back here...then again, you have had these cuts for several days." The pink hedgehog says.

Dusk gives a detached grunt showing her indifference.

"Something on your mind sis?"

"Hmm?" Dusk mumbles, glancing over her shoulder at Amy.

"You seem zoned out."

"Oh...well, you guys seem to trust me, but I just realized that everyone else out there won't." Dusk replies in an upset tone.

"Dusk, don't worry about the public for now. Right now you should be concentrated on resting up and letting your wounds heal." Amy replies while wrapping gauze around the open cut. "Besides, what can they do?"

"Hmm, call the cops on me, torment me to no end, shoot poisonous looks at me as I walk by, need I go on?" She asks in a suddenly angry tone.

"Sheesh...what turned you into a grouch?" Amy asks before taping the gauze down.

Dusk sharply exhales, "I'm sorry sis...its just that I'm still ticked at Eggman for what he did."

Amy gives her sister a bright smile, "Look, I know you're mad at him for using you like that, and I probably won't feel anything like that in my life at all...but don't let it change you, okay?" Amy pauses while she takes Dusk's hand, "I don't want my cheerful sister to turn into a bitter one because of some jerk. Forget Eggman and look to your future with us. Okay?"

Dusk gently squeezes Amy's hand, "Alright sis." She says before smiling back at the pink hedgehog.

"Thanks. Now let me see your other hand, I want to check on that burn."

Amy finishes treating Dusk after ten minutes, then bids her sis farewell before leaving for her apartment. Once the door closes, Dusk lies down and sighs...things finally seemed to (at least somewhat) be looking up for her. Sure, her life wouldn't be perfect...but at least she was with the right team now.

Dusk closes her eyes and allows herself to drift off to sleep. About four hours passed, although to her it felt more like three minutes, before Amy returned.

"Dusk..." she whispers while gently nudging her sis, "Dusk, I brought you something."

"Hmm?" Dusk mutters while opening her eyes and turning to her sis, "What happened to you?" she asks after noticing that Amy looked...clean. Her fur was back to its bright pink shade, and her formerly dingy and slightly ripped dress was brand new.

"A nice warm bath and a shopping spree. That's what happened" Amy replies, getting a couple chuckles out of her sis. "I brought you some new clothes." She adds while lifting up a large shopping bag.

"No offense Amy, but you're never getting me into one of your red dresses."

Amy rolls her eyes, "Dusk...I meant I bought you some brand new clothes from the mall...I hope I got the right size."

"Thanks." Dusk says as she grabs the bag. Amy smiles and leaves to let her sis change in private.

Dusk reaches into the bag and the first thing she pulls out was a pair of snow-white gloves. The purple hedgehog glances down at the pair she was wearing and winces a little. They had browned from a lack of washes, the cuff of the left glove was frayed and the right one had a hole burned in it.

She quickly swapped the glove pairs and smiled at how soft they felt on her skin. She dug into the bag again and pulled out a short-sleeved shirt that was identical to the one she had on except for the various tears that several days of roughing-it-in-the-woods had made. Like the gloves, Dusk quickly swapped shirts and was pleased to notice that her new one fit just as well as the old one.

The next item to come out had a perfectly identical color scheme to the shirt and was a pair of pants, but were shorts. Ignoring the leg length, Dusk quickly slipped them on, pleased to lose the pants that had frayed bottoms, tears over the knee, and a big rip over the right shin.

The last thing Dusk changed was her socks, and she lifted up the bag to move it...but felt another something shift around inside it. _Huh...guess Amy got a little something for herself and forgot to remove it,_she thinks while letting curiosity get the better of her and peeking inside. What was inside surprised her, a small box wrapped in purple tissue paper and a tag attached that said 'To Dusk'.

"A present? For me?" She mumbles while reaching in and grabbing the box. Dusk sets the box down in front of her, tears away enough of the tissue paper to remove the lid, and is surprised at what was resting inside...two silver-colored bracelets, perfectly identical to Amy's in every way except the color.

Dusk removes the bracelets and finds a small note attached to them. She broke the string that held the note to the rings, and started to read...

_Hiya Dusk. I hope you like these bracelets. I would've gotten you gold ones like mine, but silver fits you much better. Consider them my personal way of welcoming you to our group, and of giving you a way of showing that you're a Rose._

_Wear 'em proudly!_

_Your ever-caring sis, Amy._

Dusk wiped a small tear from her eye, slipped the note into her pocket, and clasped the bracelets on. Like everything else Amy had given her, they fit perfectly. Dusk admires the glittering silver bracelets from several angles and takes in everything about them...their shape, their color, how beautifully they glinted in the sunlight, all of it.

Dusk shifted the garbage into a small pile, got up, and left the room to find Amy waiting outside.

"Well?" Amy asks upon seeing Dusk come out.

"Thanks Amy, these new clothes fit perfectly." Dusk then raises a wrist to show one of the bracelets, "...and thanks a lot for these. They mean more than you know."

Amy grins and raises one of her wrists to show the gold bracelet that sat there, a perfect clone of the one on Dusk's except for the color. Dusk returns the grin and draws her sis in for a gentle hug.

"Feeling a little better?" Amy asks after the hug ends.

Dusk nods, "Eggman had better watch out now. Between your hammer and my shadows, he doesn't stand a chance."

Amy chuckles before saying, "Come on, I think Tails' has made lunch." and helping her sis downstairs.

**Wow this chapter took a long time to come out...and it doesn't even seem worth the wait. But that's what a combination of writer's block, lack of ideas, and homework does. I will try to get Chapter 20 up before another month passes.**


	20. Dusk's Hidden Power

**Thank you all for being patient while I enjoyed a vacation from this. My ideas have begun to flow again and I've already begun to form the next chapters. Please, enjoy chapter number twenty of 'Dusk Sets'!**

**Oh yes, and the only character I own is Dusk, all of the others are property of SEGA/Sonic Team.**

Chapter 20 Dusk's Hidden Power

Lunch was eaten in relative peace. Sonic and Knuckles had returned just before Tails finished cooking lunch so all five Mobians were present for the food. Even though few words were said, Dusk could still sense a little tension in the air...mainly around Knuckles. The echidna wasn't unpleasant to her, and he even complimented Dusk on her new outfit, but she couldn't help but feel a little uneasy when his eyes were watching her.

After lunch was consumed, Knuckles wandered off again, Sonic began lounging around, Tails went downstairs again to continue working, Dusk moved upstairs to rest a bit more, and Amy began cleaning up the kitchen. Things were tranquil until about 4 in the afternoon.

Sonic, Amy, and Tails were all in the living room, telling Dusk the true versions of Eggman's lies. About a minute after they finished explaining the Metal Overlord ordeal, a loud thud comes from outside. This was a _loud_ thud...the kind that came from a big, heavy object hitting the ground.

Right after that thud happened, an unwelcome voice is heard...Eggman's.

"Attention Tails!" His voice called out, sounding like it was coming through a megaphone. "I know that you have my emeralds. Give them up peacefully and I will not destroy your workshop."

Tails stands, goes over to the window, and sees an enormous yellow gorilla robot standing outside. "What's Eggman doing here? And how'd he know that we had some emeralds?"

"This is your last chance Tails! Give up the emeralds now, or your home will be smashed!"

"We can figure that out later, right now we need to turn that robot into scrap!" Sonic says before getting up and speeding outside.

Amy gets up to follow, but stops short of the door and turns to Tails. "Tails, keep my sis safe."

"What are you talking about Amy? It sounds as if you don't want me to fight with you." Dusk says while standing herself.

"That's exactly it Dusk. You're too hurt."

"Amy come on, you'll probably need my..."

"Dusk. No. Tails, keep her safe." Amy says, cutting Dusk off in mid-sentence. Before Dusk could try arguing, Amy hurries out the door. The purple hedgehog lets out a defeated sigh and sits back down, an unamused look on her face.

Outside, Sonic had managed to force the robot to back away from Tails' house...but hadn't really caused any damage. Truth be told, his Homing Attacks did little beyond scuffing the paint job.

Eggman's laughter filters through the robot's loudspeakers, "Forget it Sonic! The armor on the Egg-Gorilla is extra-tough. There's no way you can break it!"

"I've heard that before..." Sonic mutters under his breath. He's about to curl up and ram the robot with another Homing Attack, but then a red-and-gold hammer slams into the robot's head and knocks it off-balance.

Sonic turns around and sees Amy running up, one hammer flying away from her and another one already formed in her hand.

"Amy! What're you doing?!" Sonic asks in a panic, concerned for his friend's safety.

"I'm here to help you fight off this guy." she replies. Before Sonic could argue back, he heard a mechanical grinding behind him. Without even looking, Sonic speeds up to Amy and carries her off before either hedgehog is smashed beneath the Gorilla's fist.

He skids to a smooth stop and sets his admirer down. "Amy, get back in the workshop."

"No way Sonic, I'm staying out here to help." She stubbornly replies.

"Amy..."

"Sonic, no-one is else is around and you're barely doing any damage to that thing. You need all the help you can get."

Sonic grunted in a defeated tone...Amy was right, but he didn't like having her around when things got dangerous.

"Fine, but try not to get hurt." Sonic says to her as the Gorilla turns around to face them. The blue hedgehog curled into a ball, spun in place, then shot forward and rammed into one of the legs. Like with his Homing Atttacks, his attack did little damage.

Over the next several minutes, the advantage in this fight was clearly the Egg-Gorilla's. Amy's hammers were doing little beyond small dents, and Sonic, despite his speed, couldn't land many hits since Amy was almost always in danger and he had to continually get her to safety.

Finally ten minutes pass before Eggman decides to break the stalemate by using one of the Egg-Gorilla's tricks...

Once again Sonic tried a Homing Attack and once again he bounced off the robot. The hedgehog landed perfectly and skidded a little from his momentum, but didn't notice that the Egg-Gorilla aimed its right palm directly at him.

A small door opened in the palm and a bright flash of light erupted from it, blinding Sonic.

"GAAAH!" He yells, covering his eyes and rubbing them a little. It didn't do him any good...everything was out of focus.

Eggman took advantage of this and pinned Sonic underneath the robot's right hand. He wasn't crushing him, but there was no way for Sonic to move or fight back.

"Sonic!" Amy yells. Her distraction proved to be what gave the Egg-Gorilla another free hit. In one move, Amy took a punch from the left fist, screamed, and hit the ground after flying a few feet.

She groans and tries to get up, but there was a searing pain shooting up her right leg. Amy rested a hand against the center of the pain, thought she felt some liquid there, and pulled her hand back. Part of her white glove had turned red from blood, and judging by the amount...it was bad.

"Say farewell, Amy." Eggman's voice says, drawing her attention back to the monstrous robot. Its left fist was pulled back and ready to fly in and finish her off.

"Am—GAAH!" Sonic yells out as the right hand presses down on him.

The fist began flying towards the pink hedgehog. She couldn't get out of the way from the attack, or try to block or deflect it, all Amy did was brace for the attack, shut her eyes, and look away.

The impact never came. She heard a clang sound, but didn't feel anything.

Amy turned back to the robot and saw a large, blackish wall had appeared and taken the full impact of the fist.

"Amy!" A voice calls from the workshop's direction. She turns and sees Dusk skating up to the robot, her left hand out with a blackish aura around it.

"Dusk?! What're you doing?!"

"Saving your life, that's what!" She replies while sliding to a stop beside her sister, "Interesting way of saying thanks."

"Dusk!" Eggman's voice exclaims, "Finally you've been found!" his tone changes from happy to angered in an instant, "What're you thinking? Why did you save this villain's life?"

"The only villain around here is you!" Dusk angrily yells up at the machine.

"What are you talking about? I've been..."

"Blah blah blah, save it. I've heard the truth you moron...you're the real bad-guy, not Amy or Sonic or any of the others that you claimed were." Dusk rudely says to him while looking away and crossing her arms.

Eggman was now fuming at his creation's disobedience. Dusk heard a metallic sound, assumed the gorilla was trying to punch her, and jumped away...but she assumed wrong. Instead of a closed fist, the left hand was an open palm. Before Dusk knew it, she was caught in the gorilla's hand, her head poking out just above the fist.

"You listen to me you ungrateful little brat! I am the great Dr. Eggman! And you will obey me!"

Dusk grunts a little from the tightness of the robot's grip. "You can't make me!" she defiantly yells.

"Dusk! You were created by me! Have you forgotten that?"

"Its true...I was made in your lab..." she grunts a little bit more, "but it is still Amy Rose DNA that exists within me! You may have modified it...but I am still a Rose, and I will never follow you again!"

"Dusk! It doesn't matter what DNA exists in you, you are still my creation and you will. Obey. ME!" Eggman yells, his tone conveying the idea that his temper had burst.

"Never. Again!"

"Insolent whelp! I will have to teach you a lesson you will never forget."

The Egg Gorilla's fist begins squeezing, causing Dusk to shriek in pain. Her own arm bones were starting to dig into her sides and her legs were pressing uncomfortably into one another. A sickening, crunching sound is heard as the bottom of her Extreme Gear skates began to crack and break up.

"Eggman...stop, please..." Amy weakly pleads, "Dusk is hurt...you're going to make everything worse."

That was probably a mistake...Dusk had made Eggman so angry that he had forgotten about Amy, but the pink hedgehog's plea had reminded him of her. "Dusk, as extra punishment...watch as I destroy the original!" he shouts. As his sentence finishes, the Egg-Gorilla begins pressing down on Amy with one of its large feet...but it didn't just stomp down, oh no. Instead it was slowly pressing down on the pink hedgehog...treating the two sisters to the same fate.

Amy began shrieking herself at the pain surging through her, which was only intensifying with each passing second as the pressure got larger and larger. Dusk herself was writhing around in pain, both from the crushing grip of the robot's fist, and from hearing her sister in such pain. "No...Eggman...stop it now..." she mumbled, "Eggman...stop hurting...my sister...you must..."

Dusk lost the feeling of being crushed in the robot's grip in an instant. She didn't pass out or go numb, instead it was like her senses were suddenly tuned to only one input...Amy's. It was as if her body had tuned itself to Amy's pain instead of her own.

_That's it...Eggman is going too far this time..._ Dusk thought in an instant, _He can't hurt Amy...I won't let him hurt Amy...I have to protect her..._Amy's screams seem to intensify and so does the pain within Dusk's body. _I...must...protect...my sister!_

At that second Dusk felt...something...snap, deep within her. It was like some kind of, limit was removed and a torrent of power and energy was suddenly within every tiny cell of her body. She was suddenly supercharged with so much energy, it felt like she could take on anything.

She let out another yell but, this one wasn't from pain...it was more like a primal roar of rage. In an instant, an enormous shadow tentacle erupted out of the robot's shadow and slammed the machine over as easily as Dusk could've pushed a sheet paper. As the robot fell over, all three hedgehogs were freed and (despite being roughly twenty feet in the air) Dusk landed softly on the ground.

Sonic sighed as the pressure was relieved and lifted his head to an amazing sight...Dusk's entire body was surrounded in what could only be described as a purple haze. This strange haze was swirling and dancing around her body like flames of pure purple fire, gently curling around her form and radiating off from her before disappearing into the air.

The Egg-Gorilla got back up while Eggman yelled, "How did you accomplish that?! You disobedient little..." but was unable to finish his sentence because of what happened next.

Without even moving a muscle, Dusk made the shadow tentacle wrap around the robot's left arm and tear it off like it was light as a feather. No straining, no weakening of the joints...nothing to help. It just pulled back and tore the arm clean off. The tentacle did the same thing with the robot's right arm before grabbing the robot and forcing its face down to Dusk's level.

"I no longer help the infernal likes of you..." Dusk said, "You used me, lied through your teeth, tricked me into causing evil, and just now you almost killed my sister. I am no longer a Robotnik...I. Am a Rose."

With that sentence uttered, the tentacle contracts and slices its way clean through the body of the Egg-Gorilla as easy as snapping a toothpick. Before it could attack again though, Eggman slammed the eject button, causing the head to detach and fly away.

Dusk slowly turned her head to watch Eggman flee, then felt her power boost suddenly fade away. The massive tentacle faded away along with the purple haze, and she immediately felt fatigued and dizzy. Her muscles felt like jelly, her bones felt like lead, her head was throbbing, and her energy levels had plummeted so far that it felt like she hadn't slept in three weeks.

The purple hedgehog placed a hand to her head and fell down to her knees. Within a second, Sonic was beside her.

"Dusk are you..."

"Forget me Sonic, help Amy." Dusk weakly says while pointing to the collapsed pink hedgehog a few feet from her.

Sonic nods and speeds over to Amy, lifts her into his arms, and speeds away towards Station Square. Dusk watches the blue streak he left behind fade away, then collapsed into unconsciousness.

**I'll admit, with this chapter's premiere it appears that Dusk is getting too powerful, but bare with me until the next chapter...it should explain things and ease concerns.**


	21. Aftermath

Chapter 21 Aftermath

Dusk is back in that creepy place...that negative void with a purple sky and black clouds and non-existent ground.

"I'm back here again..." Dusk mumbled. At that second she heard a scream come from behind her.

Dusk whips around to see an impossible sight...the Egg Gorilla is standing there, only a deep blue instead of yellow.

Its like she was watching the fight with it again...Sonic was pinned under the right hand, Amy was underneath the left foot, and another Dusk was in the left fist.

"No Eggman..stop it now..." the other Dusk muttered, "Eggman...stop hurting...my sister...you must..."

The other Dusk yelled out and a shadow tentacle erupted out of nowhere and slammed the Egg Gorilla over, releasing the hedgehogs from its grip.

Dusk saw her copy softly land and become engulfed within purple haze while the robot stood up. Without moving, the copy commands the tentacle to attack and proceeds to tear off the robot's arms...but that's where the replay stopped.

Instead of pulling the Egg-Gorilla down, the tentacle continued to rip the robot apart. Dusk watched in horror as the large robot was reduced to a pile of scrap in mere seconds by her copy's power. Then an even more terrifying thing happens...the copy turns on the other Sonic and Amy.

Those two are pummeled by copy-Dusk's mighty power, and real Dusk falls into a state of pure terror. Each yell that Sonic releases and each shriek Amy lets out terrify Dusk even more and as much as she wants to fight her copy, she couldn't. It was like she was frozen and was being forced to watch this beating.

Eventually copy-Dusk halts her beating of Sonic and Amy and turns toward the real one while the Egg-Gorilla's remnants and the other two hedgehogs fade away. Slowly, copy-Dusk walks towards the real one until she's finally close enough for Dusk to see its face and would've screamed if her voice worked...

Its eyes were nothing but white, its face was in a twisted smile, and the dancing haze of purple made the copy appear to be pure evil.

Finally motion and speech return to Dusk and she lets out a scream while running from the copy as fast as her legs could go. After a couple minutes Dusk looks over her shoulder to find the copy was right behind her. Despite Dusk speeding up as fast as she could, the copy keeps pace.

Dusk tries to form a tentacle to fight it off, but her powers refuse to work. After a few failed tries, Dusk gives up and just tries to get away from her demented clone. Then, she starts falling...as if the fake ground had run out.

Dusk looks to see where she was going and saw nothing but an abyss of pure black rushing up to meet her. She screams a little as the abyss surrounds her...

Now there was nothing...no falling sensation, no negative-sky, no clear earth, no noises, nothing. Suddenly a pink flash of light appears in front of Dusk and assumes the shape of Amy.

"Amy?" Dusk asks, surprised at what she was seeing.

The light tilts its 'head' to look curious, then is quickly destroyed as a whip of blackness cracks through it.

"Amy! No!" Dusk screams.

* * *

Dusk suddenly bolts upright with a yell, then quickly flinches from a lashing pain in her back. She's panting hard, she can feel a cold sweat everywhere on her body, and her hands are trembling.

She gulps a little as a replay of the apparent nightmare plays back in her mind in fast-forward. "These nightmares...they are absolutely terrifying." she mumbles while trying to wipe the sweat off of her forehead. "Was that really me though? I was..."

Dusk's sentence cuts off as she hears a door open, a voice exclaim "Dusk!", and the feeling of arms around her neck and soft fur on her cheek. Amy had caught her sister in a hug.

"Oh Dusk I'm so happy...you're finally..." Amy stops as Dusk pulls her closer, holds her tighter, and begins crying on Amy's shoulder.

"Amy...please tell me it wasn't real...tell me I didn't really destroy the Egg-Gorilla."

"Dusk?" Amy asks in concern, "What's the matter? You did destroy the Egg-Gorilla."

"No..." Dusk whispers, "No..." her tears begin falling faster.

"Dusk? Please, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" Amy asks, now a little scared.

"Amy...I saw it...I saw myself destroy the Egg-Gorilla...then I turned on you...I watched as I pummeled you and Sonic...I was terrifyingly vicious...the images of my attacks hitting you...they keep playing over and over...Amy please, I'm so scared."

"Dusk, you aren't making any sense."

Dusk suddenly pulls away from her sister and buries her face in her hands, weeping in fright, only looking at Amy when the pink hedgehog forces her head to lift up. "Dusk, take some deep breaths and tell me what's wrong."

The purple hedgehog does what she's told and manages to calm down enough to speak normally. "Amy...I had another nightmare, but this one was of my fight against the Egg-Gorilla. I saw myself attack and damage that robot, but unlike before I couldn't stop. I saw myself tear it to shreds, then go after you and Sonic. Once I was done with you two, I tried to turn on myself. Oh Amy, it was all so terrifying!"

Amy lightly smiles at her sis, sits on the side of the bed Dusk was in, and lightly draws her in for comfort. While Dusk rests her head onto Amy's shoulder, the pink hedgehog begins to lightly slide her hand down the purple one's back. The gentle gestures have a very quick effect on Dusk, calming the purple hedgehog from a distressed state to a calmed one.

Dusk tightens her grip a little and whispers, "Thanks Amy." into the pink hedgehog's ear.

"No trouble at all Dusk. Sisters watch out for one another, remember?" Amy feels Dusk nod to reply. The two remain together for another minute before Dusk pulls back.

"I'm feeling better now...How are you doing?" Dusk asks.

"Eh, I'm alright. My leg hurts and I had to get a few stitches, but I'm fine. Doc's say it shouldn't even leave a scar." Amy replies.

Dusk sighs, "That's good news. Now could you tell me what happened after I destroyed the Egg-Gorilla?"

"You passed out. You've been out for almost two days."

"Two days?!" Dusk repeats in shock. "I've been out cold for two whole days?!"

Despite preparing for this reaction, Amy still winces a little at Dusk's response, "Yea. Sonic, the rest of the group, and I also...told the public about you."

"You did WHAT without me?!"

"We had no choice Dusk! To make sure you were okay we had to take you to a hospital and...well..."

Dusk doesn't reply right away instead she looking around at the room she's in. She didn't notice it before on account of her nightmare, but Dusk was in a hospital bed.

There was that draw-around curtain, a couple of chairs for visitors, a closed window at the end of the room, and every other usual object in a hospital room. She occupied the only bed in the room and was in an un-appealing, light-green hospital gown.

Dusk blushed a little at the somewhat embarrassing outfit before turning back to Amy, "Alright...how did the people react?"

"Well..." Amy hesitates, but her expression told Dusk all she needed to know.

"That badly huh?" Dusk asks while lying back down, her back was starting to get sore.

"It wasn't all that bad...they seemed to understand our point, but I don't know exactly how they feel about you."

"I can probably guess." she replies in a saddened tone.

"Cheer up a little Dusk. If it helps any, the rest of us were all concerned for you."

The purple hedgehog raises an eyebrow and asks, "Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails? Or the _whole_ group?"

"See for yourself." comes Sonic's voice.

The two sisters turn around as the rest of their gang comes in. Everyone but Shadow seemed to be present, and the sisters understood why he wouldn't be here.

"So...you told the others..." Dusk stops in mid-sentence, allowing Sonic to finish with, "How you destroyed the Egg-Gorilla and saved Amy's life? Yes."

"We're convinced, you've changed." Blaze says, a tone of gentleness in her voice, "Welcome to the crew."

"...and I've got a gift to say welcome." Tails adds as he hands a box over to Dusk.

Dusk curiously opens it and her expression lights up when she sees her Extreme Gear inside, all shiny and new. Not a single dent, crack, or scratch to be seen.

"You re-built my skates?" She asks while taking them out of the box.

"Sort of. I salvaged what I could from your old pair, and built some new skates around that. Those are faster, stronger, more durable, and have better handling than your old pair. My gift."

Dusk would've hugged Tails had he been closer, but resorts to a simple, "Thanks."

Tails chuckles a little, flicks his tails a little, and replies, "Not a problem."

"So...how are you feeling?" Silver asks.

Dusk shrugs, "I'm a little tired, my muscles feel weak, and my back hurts, but that's about it...guess I'm a lucky hedgehog."

"Hey Dusk? Could you maybe tell us about that power boost you got?" Sonic asks, "I'll admit, that was impressive and I think all of us are curious about it."

Instantly Dusk's good mood vanishes as she sinks into the bed. "I would rather not talk about it..." she mumbles, sounding upset and distracted.

Nearly everyone raises an eyebrow out of curiosity and Sonic is about to ask again, but is quieted by a look from Amy. Instead the blue hedgehog says, "Oh, well if you don't want to, that's okay."

A quiet "Thanks." is his reply.

Several more conversations are held before everyone disperses. By then, afternoon had changed to evening and Dusk settled down and tried to drift off to sleep again. She did it, and luckily it was a peaceful sleep.

However...she had one more visitor that day.

* * *

The visitor appeared out of nowhere and did so with so little noise that Dusk hardly flicked an ear.

Dusk was sleeping with her back to it, so the visitor silently walked around to the other side of the bed. It knelt down to get a better view of her sleeping face, and smiled a little. She seemed so peaceful and docile while asleep...and kinda cute.

The visitor watched her body softly move with each breath, then set a small gift down on the nightstand. It took one more look at Dusk before whispering something and disappearing in a flash of light.

The light flash disturbed Dusk and woke her up, but by the time her eyes opened, the visitor was gone. The purple hedgehog let her eyes adjust to the darkness and noticed a silhouette on the nightstand that wasn't there before. She clicked on the lamp and gasped...

...it was a rose. A beautiful, snow-white rose.

"Where did this come from?" Dusk whispered while picking the rose up, being careful to not twist the thorn-less stem or damage its frail petals. She took a sniff and sighed...it smelt so beautiful and fresh, a smell she hold only experienced before when she strayed from Eggman's base so long ago.

Then she noticed something else...a small note tied to the stem. Dusk gently removed it, and took a look at what was written. It wasn't much, just one simple sentence...

_A gift, hope you feel better soon and welcome to the group._

That was it. No signature was present and Dusk hadn't learned the handwriting of the others yet, but she had a pretty good idea of who left her this gift.

Dusk smiled and looked out the window for a minute before setting the rose and note back on the nightstand and slipping back into sleep, a content smile on her face.


	22. A Peaceful Afternoon

**After all of the sudden events of the past chapters, this one switches things to a more peaceful gear. I'll bet you that this one will bring a smile to your face, it definitely did as I was writing it.**

**Before I forget, I'd better put up a slightly modified Disclaimer: I do not own Amy Rose or any other characters that appear within this story, the only exception being Dusk. All of the rest are copyright SEGA.  
****I also own no copyrights to any of the three songs that appear, each one is copyrighted to their respective owners.**

* * *

Chapter 22 A Peaceful Afternoon

Dusk was allowed out of the hospital the next day. Amy had brought Dusk another new set of clothes that day, this time a replica of her old outfit, and presented Dusk with her pair of silver bracelets. Somehow those had only gotten off with a few scratches, but Dusk didn't mind...they still fit comfortably and that's what mattered.

While Cream and her mother Vanilla went back to Amy's apartment to place Dusk's rose into some water, Amy began showing Dusk around Station Square. Dusk didn't really mind the tour of Station Square or the small lunch at a local diner...what was getting to her was all the glares people were shooting at her. One or two and Dusk wouldn't have cared, but when practically every human and Mobian her path crossed gave her a toxic glare...she found it unsettling. The two sisters finally reached Amy's apartment roughly five and a half hours after Dusk was released from the hospital, but to Dusk it was five and a half hours too long.

It could've been worse though...if it weren't for Rouge, Dusk would've had to tour Station Square with a dozen heavily armed GUN soldiers. Thankfully though, the bat managed to pull a couple strings and get Dusk an un-guarded civilian status.

Dusk took up residence in Amy's guest bedroom and easily moved in since she had little beyond several outfits and her Extreme Gear. The rose that was left for her at the hospital sat in a vase of water on the nightstand and Dusk made sure to keep it from wilting. She was fairly certain as to who left it for her, but always answered Amy's "Who gave you this?" question with "I don't know. Someone who believes that I've changed, I guess."

Despite all of this good luck, there was a small stroke of bad luck that came with it. Eggman attacked once during the month since Dusk's release from the hospital, but Dusk wasn't able to get there before he fled. For some reason, the public took her absence from the fight as evidence that she hadn't changed...and she was feeling the unfair results of that.

Every day in the mail, at least three of the letters were tossed automatically, being hate-mail towards the purple hedgehog. Even worse was the occasional news report on her...Dusk swore, every person that was interviewed said nothing good about her.

Dusk did her best to block it out, but it still got depressing after a while. She was leaving them alone, so why couldn't they leave her alone?

* * *

Its late afternoon and Dusk is currently in the kitchen, tidying things up while Amy was out getting groceries. The warm sunlight was leaking in through the open window along with a docile autumn breeze, the combination of the two was making the kitchen a very comfortable place. The radio was on and Dusk was singing along with the song as she was cleaning.

"_I've tried to be perfect. Tried to be honest. Tried to be everything that you ever wanted._" Dusk sang. Her singing voice wasn't all that bad, very melodic and pleasant to listen to...interesting for a hedgehog who had never sung much before. "_I've tried to be stronger. Tried to be smarter. Tried to be everything but you..._"

Dusk twirled a little before slipping a few spices back into their cabinet.

"_I've tried to be perfect. Tried to be honest. Tried to be everything that you ever wanted. I've tried to be stronger. Tried to be smarter. Tried to be everything but you..._" her voice trails off with the song as it ends, and Dusk lets out a small smile. Singing always seemed to cheer her up no matter what was going on.

_And that was Hawk Nelson's 'Everything that you ever wanted'. _The radio announcer said, _Now here's Relient K's 'Who I am hates who I've been'._

Dusk smiled again, this was another song that she knew and happened to be a favorite...probably because it defined her so well.

As the opening guitar solo began to play Dusk began playing an air guitar, eventually singing along with the words as they came. For the first part she continues to clean, but stops when the chorus comes around.

"_I'm sorry for...the person I became. I'm sorry that...it took so long for me to change. I'm ready to...be sure I never become that way again. 'Cause who I am hates who I've been. Who I am hates who I've been._" Dusk sang out that part and began rocking out on an air guitar again. Once the words return, so does her voice and her cleaning activities until the final chorus...

"_So sorry for...the person I became. So sorry that...it took so long for me to change. I'm ready to...be sure I never become that way again. 'Cause who I am hates who I've been. Who I am hates who I've been._" the purple hedgehog sings out at the ending before playing a little more air guitar for the finale.

As the radio changes to a commercial, which Dusk mutes, the sound of clapping is heard from Amy's living room. Dusk spins around to see Amy standing there, applauding, the bag of groceries hanging from her elbow.

"Bravo Dusk! Bravo!" she calls out, getting Dusk to blush.

"A-Amy?!...How much did you see?" Dusk weakly asks. She only sang and did the air guitar when she thought she was alone.

"Just the ending of that song. You actually have a very beautiful singing voice Dusk, why haven't I heard it before?" Amy asks while entering the kitchen.

"I guess I've just never felt like singing before." Dusk replies, feeling anxious to try and change the subject.

"I don't buy that for a second Dusk."

The purple hedgehog sighs before answering, "Alright...you've never heard me sing because I've only felt comfortable singing when I'm alone."

"I'd have never picked you to be the shy type." Amy states while setting a new milk gallon in the fridge.

"Well I guess I am...about that at least."

About thirty seconds pass in awkward silence, just the two of them putting the groceries away, then Amy asks, "Do you like it?"

"Like what?"

"Singing. You really seemed happy and carefree while singing, and I wanted to know if you liked it."

"I guess I do...its one of the ways for me to forget about the troubles nagging me and be happy."

Amy 'hmms', "Society distrust getting at you again?"

"Bingo."

Amy shakes her head and whispers, "Idiots." under her breath.

Dusk smiles a little at her sis. That hedgehog had a knack for getting others to smile and laugh, though whether it was intentional or not was a different matter.

That smile soon passes as Dusk walks over to the window and looks out at the sunset. She loved to see the beauty in everyday things, and the beautiful reds and oranges that the sunset threw out over the sky was no different. She sadly sighed while looking out at this beautiful world that was filled with people who hated her...for a brief second, Dusk wondered if they would ever accept her.

"Don't worry Dusk, they'll warm up to you. You just have to be patient." Amy says, almost as if she could read her sister's mind.

Dusk only grunts to reply, right now she didn't want to speak.

"Care for a drink?" Amy asks.

"Sure. My usual please." Dusk replies.

Amy grabs a bottle of strawberry-flavored water from the fridge and tosses it to her sis. With a flick of her wrist, Dusk made a shadow-tentacle shoot out from her shadow and snatch the bottle in mid-flight. She takes it from her shadow and allows it to revert to normal while opening the bottle.

The sisters move from the kitchen to the living and seat themselves on the couch, Dusk with her flavored water and Amy with a small orange juice bottle. A minute or so passes before the pink hedgehog speaks up again, "Well...at least you're in good health."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm just saying that you haven't collapsed like you did with..."

"Amy please." Dusk says, cutting her sister off, "I don't want to talk about it."

"Dusk...its been almost a month. Don't you want to speak about it a little?"

"No." Dusk flatly replies.

Amy left it at that. She learned that if Dusk didn't want to talk about something, the tone of her refusal was clear. It said 'No means no, now stop asking.'

About a minute passes before Amy speaks again, "Care to sing a song?"

"What?" Dusk ask while turning to her sister.

"Did you want to sing another song? With me?"

"I don't know Amy..."

"Come on Dusk, please?"

"Alright, but we'll have to pick a song we both know."

The pink hedgehog smiles to the purple one and guides her over to the computer. Amy opens her music list and asks, "See anything?"

Dusk takes a look and eventually settles on a song she'd heard a few times via radio, Live and Learn. Amy starts the song up and the two sisters prepare themselves.

As soon as the song starts, both of them begin playing an air guitar until the words show up at which point both begin singing. The lyrics came by and both sisters sing along while pulling off plenty of silly stunts and dance moves.

They'd press shoulders or lock arms for a couple lines before separating. They'd head-bob or tap a foot in time with the beat. Occasionally they'd jump or spin as they played the air guitar. Finally, as the ending of the song came, Amy and Dusk pressed their backs together, rested their head against the other's and allowed their voices to harmonize for the finale...

"_Live and learn! Hanging on the edge of tomorrow. Live and learn! From the works of yester-may. Live and learn! If you feign on if you farrow. Live and learn! You may never find your way!_"

Some air guitar.

"_Live and learn!_"

More air guitar.

"_Yea-yea-yea-yea. Live and learn!_"

A little more...

"_Yea-yea-yea-yea!_"

They finish off with another air guitar solo before the song ends and both begin laughing aloud. Their special 'concert' had left both hedgehogs with a fit of the giggles, but they didn't care. They were happy.

It was silly, it was kind of embarassing, and it was weird for two female voices to sing a song done by a male voice, but it was absolutely hilarious and great fun.

"Thanks Dusk." Amy says between her giggles.

"No problem Amy. And thank you for cheering me up."

"That's what sisters do." Amy chuckles a little, "We did pretty good didn't we?"

"That's true. Hey, maybe we should put on a concert for the others."

The two stop laughing and glance at one another, seemed to read the other's mind, then re-burst into a giggling fit, this one so strong that two sisters collapsed to the floor, holding onto their sides.

Right then, for a couple minutes, Dusk was totally at peace. As she laughed aloud with her sister, Dusk lost her cares about the public. As her laughs resonated with Amy's and tears began to slip out of their eyes, Dusk couldn't have cared less about her status in the public's eyes.

For a couple of minutes, there was no un-trusting public...there was no Dr. Eggman...there were no Egg-bots, no Egg-Battleship cruising the skies, no fight over the Chaos and Sol Emeralds...

...it was just Dusk and Amy...just two sisters who were doubled over with laughter at their antics on this peaceful autumn afternoon.

**

* * *

**

See what I meant? Amy's such a sweet and caring gal, isn't she?

**I should probably say that a few of the lyrics I wrote might be off, but that's a result of the singer's voice becoming hard to understand while listening to the song.**


	23. A Day with a Shadow

**Well, this is another calm chapter, similar to the previous but still a little different. Don't worry, the next update will have plenty more action in it. Oh, and by the way, that one cavern that Dusk found a while back? Its coming back in this chapter. Just giving you all a heads up.**

* * *

Chapter 23 A Day with a Shadow

Dusk was hurrying around her and Amy's apartment, gathering things into a small pile in the living room. Some of the objects she collected were a few towels, a spare set of clothing, a few water bottles both plain and strawberry flavored, a few bandages, and anti-bacterial cream.

The last thing that the purple hedgehog grabbed was a good-sized duffel bag, and Dusk began packing away the rest of the items she collected.

"Alright...I've got plenty of water, a couple sweat towels, a spare set of clothing so I don't have to wear a sweaty shirt when this is over, and a couple bandages and medicine in case I hurt myself." Dusk mumbles to herself while checking the items in her bag, "Is there anything I'm...a-ha!" she snaps her fingers, "Snacks!"

Dusk heads into the kitchen and retrieves a small bag of crackers and chips which are placed into her duffel bag along with everything else. With some food packed away Dusk returns to the living room, finds a notepad and pencil, and leaves Amy a note that read;

_Hey there Amy, I'm not around right now if you're getting this. Where am I? Out in the countryside near Tails' workshop. Why? I need to burn off a little steam so I'm re-sharpening my fighting skills. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I've got some food and water to tide me through lunch and I expect to be back in the afternoon._

_Have a good day!_

_~Dusk_

Dusk left the note out on the coffee table before leaving. She slung the duffel bag over her right shoulder, chose to head down the stairs instead of taking the elevator, rushed through the lobby (ignoring the people present), left the building and began running.

Once she started going fast enough, Dusk felt her skates began to power up and Dusk changed her running motion to a skating one. A couple seconds after leaving the apartment building, a purple blur shoots through the streets of Station Square before following the railroad tracks towards Mystic Ruins.

A couple minutes of following the tracks pass, and Dusk reaches Mystic Ruins. She diverts from the tracks and heads off into the forest. After a couple minutes of searching, Dusk finds a clearing of suitable size, sets her duffel bag down under a tree, and begins practicing her moves.

She starts off with a few slow-motion punches and kicks, then steadily begins to speed up her movements and linking them together before finally adding attacks from her shadow. Only occasionally does Dusk release a yell or grunt with her attacks, but the few that she does let out attract a little bit of attention from a certain passerby.

This spectator was just wandering around the forest, nothing really to do, when he heard Dusk's yells. Curious, this person begins walking towards the noises, spots Dusk practicing, and settles down to watch.

For a few minutes Dusk is unknowingly watched by this spectator...that is, until he shifts around a little, causing the bush he was hiding behind to rustle.

He instantly freezes when the bush shakes and Dusk stops her training. She stays completely still and only glances at the noisy bush out of the corner of her eye. For a couple seconds, neither her nor her un-seen spectator move...then, without warning, Dusk whips around to face the bush and causes a shadow-tentacle to erupt from its shadow, whip around, and smack whoever was hiding.

"OW!" A slightly rough voice yells as its owner jerks upright. Instantly Dusk winces...she had just attacked Shadow of all people.

_Oh crap..._"Shadow, I'm so sorry!" She apologetically says as she hurries over to him and her ears go back, "I heard you rustling around and thought that it could've been an Egg-bot. Oh, I just feel so awful for bashing you on the head."

Shadows rubs a little at where the tentacle bashed him and replies, "Its alright Dusk. I heal quickly and you didn't even break the skin..." he hisses a little as the wound throbs, "I'm going to have a bit of a headache though."

Dusk smiles a little as she says, "That's good, but I still feel bad for hitting you like that."

"Don't be. It probably wouldn't have happened had I not been watching you in secret."

"Incidentally Shadow...why were you hiding in those bushes?" Dusk curiously asks, "Were you spying on me?"

"I actually was just wandering through the nearby woods when I heard yelling. When I saw that you were training, I didn't want to interrupt."

Dusk smiles at Shadow again before saying, "Well...I was going to take a break soon. Would you like to join me? I've got more than enough water and snacks for myself, I can afford to share."

"Sure. I'm a little hungry myself. Thanks." Shadow replies.

Dusk leads Shadow over to her bag, removes the chips and crackers, then asks, "What kind of water? Plain or strawberry flavored?"

"Plain is fine."

Dusk pulls out a plain water and tosses the bottle to Shadow before pulling a flavored one out for herself. The two hedgehogs settle down under the tree beside the bag and begin eating, occasionally starting up a small conversation.

After a couple minutes of snacking, Shadow gets around to saying something that had been bugging him recently. "Hey Dusk?" he asks to get her attention.

"Hmm?"

"About that one time when we were fighting each other on the deck of the Egg-Battleship and I almost...you know..."

"Yea, the whole Chaos-Spears-over-my-head thing?"

"Yes, that. I doubt this will make up for it, but...I'm sorry. Sometimes when my anger gets out of hand...I'll try to do some very stupid things." Shadow says, his ears tilting back ever so slightly.

"Its alright Shadow." Dusk replies.

Her simple reply caught Shadow off-guard. That was it? A simple 'apology accepted' for something like trying to take her life? "That's it?" he asks, "No sort of asking for favors or something like that?"

"Nope. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't something I enjoyed...but I'm a different hedgehog now. All of that stuff I did as a Robotnik I've confined to nothing more than a bad memory." Dusk pauses a little to take a drink of her water, "If I'm a good girl now, why should I hold onto grudges from when I was bad?"

Shadow nods and grunts a little to show he understood.

"If anyone should apologize, it should be me. I'm sorry for everything that I did when I was with Eggman." Dusk says, her tone saddening a little towards the end.

Dusk feels a little weight on her shoulder and looks to see Shadow's hand there. The purple hedgehog looks from his hand to his face just before he says, "Its alright Dusk. You didn't know that Eggman was lying to you, so its not really your fault."

Dusk smiles at him before finishing off her water and dropping the empty bottle into her bag. "I should get back to practicing. You can stay and watch if you want," she says while standing and walking into the clearing.

"Actually Dusk..." Shadow says while standing himself, "How would you like to practice against me?"

Dusk turns around to face her friend. "You?" she repeats, a little surprised at his offer.

"Sure." Shadow says while tossing his empty bottle into her bag, "Attacking the air isn't the same as practicing against someone else...I promise, no Chaos Powers or really rough play." he pauses, "... and I'm a little bored."

"Deal." Dusk replies, holding back a few giggles.

The two hedgehogs back away from each other, before Shadow asks, "Ready?"

"Go!" Dusk yells, charging at Shadow and throwing a punch. The umber hedgehog curves out of the way and throws his own punch that Dusk catches in her hand. Before Shadow has a chance to react, Dusk swings her leg around and catches Shadow in the side with a kick, throwing him off to the side.

Shadow's able to get back onto his feet in time to begin dodging Dusk's attacks. After dodging her for a few minutes, Shadow leaps backward then charges toward Dusk who does the same to him. Just as the two are about to collide, they thrust their hands out and catch the other's.

Shadow's secretly impressed...he was a very strong hedgehog and he was pushing against Dusk as hard as he could and yet she wasn't moving an inch. He knew that it was Dusk's strength that was negating his since everything was silent...if her skates were helping there would've been a faint humming sound. The only other hedgehog that could've done that was Sonic, so he knew Dusk had some serious strength in her slender body.

After maybe a minute of this stalemate, Dusk speaks up, "Hey Shadow, how would you feel about having a little wager?"

"Like?"

"If I can pin your shoulders to the ground for three seconds without using my shadow powers, you must do one thing that I choose."

"And I'm left out of this?"

"Of course not. If you can pin my shoulders to the ground for three seconds, I'll do one thing that you choose."

"Deal. But don't choose something yet, I'm going to win."

"We'll see about that!" Dusk exclaims before breaking their stalemate, then tackling Shadow to the ground. He grunts as his shoulders strike the ground and are pinned there by Dusk's hands as the female hedgehog holds herself above him. "One...Two-wah!"

Dusk yells a little as Shadow flips them over. Now Dusk is pinned to the ground with Shadow holding himself above her. "One...Two...Thr" Shadow's counting stops as Dusk throws him off of her. The two of them get to their feet and turn to face one another. They rush towards one another again, but Dusk ducks under Shadow's arms and tackles him to the ground again.

Before she could even start counting, Shadow flips them over again, then Dusk does the same to him. The purple hedgehog was only able to reach 'one' before Shadow pushed off him and the two returned to their feet.

The combatants begins walking around in a circle, keeping a close eye on the other's movements. "Not bad Dusk...you're pretty quick on your feet." Shadow compliments.

"Thanks Shadow...you're pretty fast yourself. But can you really pin me to the ground?"

Her little trick worked. Shadow rushed at her, and Dusk sidestepped out of the way, then swept his feet out from under him. Shadow fell over backwards, and Dusk quickly fell onto him.

This time though, she decides put a little more weight on his shoulders. Last time, only her hands were pressing the umber hedgehog down, this time Dusk's _whole_ body was lying directly on Shadow's and her nose was barely an inch from his, her eyes hovering just above his with a look that asked 'is-that-it?'

"One...Two...Three!" Dusk begins giggling as she gets off of Shadow. "I won!" She exclaims before laughing a little.

Shadow gets to his feet and approaches Dusk. "Well Dusk, I'll keep my word. What do you want me to do?"

Dusk thinks for a little bit before she replies, "I want you to follow me somewhere."

Shadow raises an eyebrow and watches Dusk walk over to her bag, lift it up, and turn back to him. "Come on!" she says before skating away. Shadow immediately begins to follow.

* * *

The purple and black blurs speed away from the Mystic Ruins and head into the more rugged Red Canyon. The two head down into the canyon and Shadow follows Dusk to a rather large crack in the canyon wall.

"This is where you wanted me to follow you to? A crack in the wall?" Shadow asks, sounding confused.

"This isn't just any crack in the wall Shadow." Dusk replies before setting her bag down beside the crack, "I came here once when I was allied with Eggman. This is actually a little cave, but a ways in and the tunnel narrows to where you have to crawl. I stopped exploring once that happened because I didn't want to get stuck...but with you here..."

"...I can get us out if we get stuck, right?" Shadow finishes.

"Bingo!" Dusk exclaims while beginning to squeeze into the crack. She goes a ways before calling out, "Come on Shadow! You should be able to fit!"

Shadow sighs before following Dusk into the canyon wall. The two emerge into the small cavern and find the smaller tunnel that they had to crawl through. "Well...there's the crawl-space." Dusk states, "Ready to begin burrowing?"

Shadow nods and the two hedgehogs begin crawling through the second tunnel, Dusk leading the way.

The two crawl through the dark, cramped tunnel for at least ten minutes before Dusk suddenly stops. Shadow didn't notice that she stopped on account of the darkness and bumped right into her rear.

"AH!" She yells in surprise, "Shadow!"

"It wasn't my fault! I can't see a damn thing and you gave me no warning! Why'd you stop anyway?"

"I can see a faint light up ahead...but it isn't sunlight." Dusk replies before beginning to crawl again, Shadow following her.

In a couple minutes, both Dusk and Shadow have come across a cavern that was nothing short of amazing. Not only was its size impressive, but scattered everywhere were giant crystals that were glowing in a soft green color. There were crystaline pillars stretching from floor to ceiling, ones that burst out of the wall and curved either up or down into the ceiling or floor respectively, and there were even large patches of the crystals jutting out from the walls, ceiling, and floor.

"Wow..." Dusk mutters while taking this wondrous site in, "This place is amazing."

Shadow walks over to a nearby crystal patch and places his hand on them. "They're not warm...guess we're safe."

"What do you mean?" Dusk asks.

"If these crystals were giving off heat, then that would mean they were radioactive, but since they're cold they're perfectly harmless." Shadow explains.

"They're still beautiful..." Dusk replied, sounding as if she hadn't even heard Shadow's remark.

The umber hedgehog didn't really mind that much, instead choosing to look around the cavern a little more. Eventually his crimson eyes settled onto a tiny patch of the crystals, the largest of which was no higher than his knee. With a flick of his wrist, two Chaos Spears flew at and shattered the small crystals, catching Dusk off-guard.

"Shadow! What do you think you're doing?!" She yells, shocked at Shadow's sudden attack.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" He asks while walking over to collect the fragments, "I'm gathering up some of these crystals. At least I didn't destroy one of the larger ones."

"That is true, but why even collect them in the first place?

Shadow releases a noise that seemed to be half-grunt and half-laugh, "Do you know what Rouge would do to me if I _didn't_ bring her some of these? Ultimate Life-Form or not, she'd still break my arms if I didn't bring a new kind of jewel to her...she has something of a sixth sense with jewels."

Dusk 'hmms' a little to show she understood, and Shadow did have a point...he did go after one of the smaller patches, and left the larger pillars and arcs alone. She hears Shadow say "Catch." and manages to react in time to catch a fragment he tossed to her.

"You're giving me one?" She asks in confusion.

"Who said Rouge gets all of them?"

"Aww...thanks Shadow. This is just as sweet as that rose you left for me when I was in the hospital."

"Ye-wait...how did you know it was me? You were fast asleep."

Dusk begins giggling. "For one thing...you just told me." she answers while beginning to walk towards him.

Shadow stands there for a few minutes, then face-palms. He couldn't believe that he had just given himself away...it was so unlike him to do that, but he didn't even realize it until Dusk pointed it out.

"...and for another, a Chaos Control flash woke me up and you are the only one who causes them." She says as she stops beside Shadow, "Regardless of how I figured it out, that was still a very sweet thing for you to do. And here's my thanks..."

Dusk leans over and gently plants a short kiss onto Shadow's cheek. The friendly peck barely lasted a second, but it was still enough to cause Shadow to blush a little. Its only thanks to the dim crystal-light that Dusk doesn't notice.

"Come on." She says while walking back towards the tunnel, "I told my sis that I'd be out until the afternoon so I've got all day."

"Where are we going?" Shadow asks, following the purple hedgehog while tucking the remaining fragments into his quills.

"I don't know...back to our clearing in the Mystic Ruins? Or was there somewhere else that you wanted to go to?"

"Mystic Ruins is fine." Shadow replies while following Dusk through the tunnel. The two re-emerge into the sunlight of Red Canyon, Dusk grabs her bag, and the two head off for Mystic Ruins...off to practice until the afternoon when the two bid the other farewell, Dusk heading back to Station Square and Shadow heading toward Rouge's home to deliver the crystals.

**

* * *

**

Before you say anything in your reviews, I know that Shadow does seem a little OOC, but I also know that he is kind towards the few he considers friends. If you don't believe me, check out Sonic Chronicles, he's very concerned about E-123's safety in the beginning of the game.


	24. The Egg Assault

**Well, this chapter is definitely amongst the longest ones I've ever written...it was supposed to be split into two parts, but I decided instead to merge them since the first part seemed kinda pathetic on its own. Anyway, another battle occurs in this chapter...but I don't want to give too much away so I'll stop talking.**

* * *

Chapter 24 The Egg-Assault

Eggman was quiet and still in the command bridge of his Battleship, which was currently out of range of any possible attacks. Decoe and Bocoe were busy giving the other robots their maintenance checks and Bokkun was somewhere...but in his current mood, Eggman didn't give a care where his three bumbling assistants were.

He may not have been showing it, but in his head Eggman was positively furious. His greatest creation, Dusk, had turned on him and joined that infernal Sonic. Dusk eclipsed everything else that he built in pure potential...it was her that was to finally defeat Sonic and bring rise to the Eggman Empire, but she had turned her back on the very man that created her...that brought her DNA to life through science. Whether she liked it or not, Eggman was her creator and that meant that she owed him her life, yet she still chose to fight back and defy him.

Then came the whole matter of that incredible power surge that Dusk used to rip his Egg-Gorilla apart. How did she experience a surge like that? Her umbrakinesis never went to a level of that magnitude when she was allied with him, so how come that happened in the first place?

Eggman noticed that the surge happened shortly after his attack included Amy, so he deduced that that surge had something to do with attacking the original source of DNA, but exactly how remained a mystery. According to science, that shouldn't have even been the case, but Eggman saw absolutely no other trigger for that surge.

Not like it really mattered though. Dusk was still against him, Sonic had all of the emeralds except the three Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald that were aboard this ship, and he was losing...again.

At the heart of all of this pondering lurked one thing...revenge. Eggman wanted to exact his revenge on that traitorous hedgehog that he created and he was going to make sure that it would be as torturous as possible.

"Decoe...Bocoe...ready every robot for battle. I'm setting a course for Station Square." he said into the Battleship's intercom system before changing its course. Dusk was going to pay for her treachery to him...and she was going to pay dearly.

* * *

Dusk and Amy were enjoying a leisurely walk through Station Square Park. A gentle breeze blew by, ruffling through their quills and making the sisters sigh contently. Sure there was the occasional disgruntled citizen glaring at the purple hedgehog, but Dusk ignored them...if they didn't like her, well, that was their problem.

"Isn't it just a wonderful day Dusk?" Amy asks.

"It sure is. A soft breeze...a comfortable temperature...the nice bright sun." Dusk replies. She would've continued, but she realized that the sun was being blocked out . She looked upward, expecting a stray cloud to have wandered in front of the sun, but what she saw was much worse...it was the Egg-Battleship.

Several doors on the underside of the ship opened up and virtually every single one of Eggman's robots began dropping down into the city below, causing the citizens to flee to safety. Two Egg-Tortoises landed beside the sisters, but were destroyed before they could attack.

"Come on Amy, we've got to go break the rest of 'em!" Dusk yells while turning and running towards the city. Amy's hot on her sister's heels, frantically calling the rest of her friends to get help.

The two sisters quickly arive in downtown Station Square where Egg-bots are running amok. There had to have been at least fifty robots in view at any one time, and Amy and Dusk were sure that were probably several times that many that they couldn't see.

Instantly the sisters begin fighting the robots, Amy smashing them with her hammer and Dusk destroying them with her shadow attacks.

One robot after another falls to the sisters attacks, but it seems as though two robots come and replace each single robot that is destroyed. Amy sends some of the larger robots flying into the smaller ones with the swings of her hammer, and Dusk flings the attacking robots into others with help from her shadows, but it just isn't enough...there's too many.

Dusk uses one of her shadow-tentacles to lift then slam an Egg-Hound into the ground, destroying the machine-gun equipped robot instantly, then turned to check on her sister. Amy was attacking another Egg-Tortoise with her hammer, but was unaware of a couple Egg-Moths approaching her from behind.

Before Dusk could warn her sister of the danger, a blue streak shot through the flying robots and destroyed them instantly. Sonic appeared for a second before curling up and shooting through the Egg-Tortoise, then Sonic un-curled and carried Amy out of harms way just before the robot exploded.

The blue hedgehog skids to a stop beside the purple one as Knuckles and Rouge descend from above and Blaze and Silver arrive on foot.

"Man, I've never been more happy to see you all." Dusk says, "The Egg-Battleship just showed up and started dropping Eggman's army...where are Tails and Shadow?"

"I don't know where Shadow is, but Tails is up there." Sonic replies while gesturing upwards. Dusk looks up to see Tails in the old Tornado II flying around, shooting Egg-Hawks out of the sky.

The crowd doesn't have time to converse anymore as more Egg-bots begin to approach. They disperse and promptly begin destroying every robot that they could find. The brawl continues for a long time, at least an hour, but the heroes are no closer to winning then they were an hour ago. That constant effect of one robot replacing a broken one wouldn't negate, and the Mobians were beginning to tire.

Dusk was doing her best to keep going, oftentimes using her shadows to throw robots into others, but she was starting to get weary. Her dodges were bordering on failing, and her attacks were growing sluggish...often they'd miss simply on account of how exhausted she was getting.

The purple hedgehog just finished destroying a crowd of the robots, then heard a roar and turned to see something she really didn't want to have to fight with...an Egg-Raptor. The vicious robot was charging at her, but also popped its chest plates open to fire off five or six missiles at her.

Dusk brought a shadow-shield up to block the missles then jumped off to the side to avoid being rammed by the large robot. Dusk couldn't get her counter-attack in before the Raptor attacked again, this time firing off its gatling gun at her. Once again, Dusk has to conjour up a shadow-shield to save herself.

The purple hedgehog wasn't able to try and fight back, she was actually having a hard enough time just keeping her shield up. Things only go from bad to worse as the bullets stop, but the Egg-Raptor stomps through Dusk's shield and pins her to the ground.

With a hiss it begins charging its mouth laser, and with no strength left, Dusk closes her eyes and looks away. She can hear it start to whine, then it stops as a thud is heard and the pressure on her chest is relieved. Dusk looks to see that the Egg-Raptor was shoved off to her left and at her right was Shadow, looking somewhat peeved at the Egg-Raptor.

She can't say anything though, since almost immediately Shadow curls up and flies towards the Egg-Raptor, piercing clean through the machine. Then an odd thing happens...Dusk blinks and the scenery around her changes from a ravaged street to a roof-top.

"What the?" she asks while glancing around.

"You okay Dusk?" comes a voice behind her. She looks to see Shadow standing there. "That Egg-Raptor didn't cause too much damage did it?"

"No no, you saved me just in time, but how'd I get up here?"

"I can use Chaos Control to both teleport and slow time around me. I slowed things down, then carried you to safety."

"Thanks."

"Not a problem, but you'll have to stay up here. You're too exhausted to fight anymore." Shadow says before flipping over the side of the building and skating downward to re-join the fight. As much as Dusk didn't like it, he was right...with her muscles the way they were, she was both exhausted and sore and unlikely to be of much help.

The purple hedgehog still wants to see what's going on and crawls over to the side of the building to watch, unaware of another presence on the roof-top with her. She could see all of her friends doing the best to fight back the robot army, but it was noticeable that they were starting to tire. Sonic and Blaze didn't seem to be moving as fast as they could, Knuckles and Rouge were a little sluggish, Silver was having difficulty with lifting even the smaller robots, and Amy's hammer was awfully small. The only one actually managing to do a lot of damage was Shadow, but even he was starting to get overwhelmed.

Suddenly, she felt something like a metallic rope curl around her wrists and ankles, then lift her up into the air. Dusk gasped and looked behind her to see some kind of new Egg-bot lifting her up, its tentacles tightly grasping her joints.

The robot carried her back over the battlefield and up higher into the air...right towards Eggman himself.

The genius began laughing as his robot brought her to him. "So Dusk...how do you like my new robot, the Egg-Octopus? Don't even bother trying to break free, its tentacles are made of super-soft and super-strong alloy and without your hands, you can't create those shadows to help you."

Dusk still struggles a little and asks, "Why don't you quite making hot air and tell me what you really want?"

Eggman growls from her snide question, "What I want, is you. Dusk, you are my creation so you owe me your life...you are part of the Eggman Empire whether you like it or not, and I'm giving you one final chance. Re-ally with me, and I'll leave Station Square and forgive your treachery."

"You've got a better chance of growing hair than me returning to you." she says with a hint of the characteristical Rose temper shining in her eyes.

"Very well. If that is your final decision...I guess I'll just have to force you to return to me. But first..." Eggman snaps his fingers, causing the Egg-Octopus to angle Dusk downward, providing her a view of the battle which was steadily looking worse and worse for her friends. "...watch as your pathetic friends finally fall to me."

What Eggman said seemed to be coming true, Dusk's friends were losing...badly. Blaze and Silver were cornered, Knuckles and Rouge were pinned to the ground beneath several robots, the Tornado II was barely flying and had several Egg-Vultures firing attacks that were coming dangerously close to the plane, and Amy, Sonic, and Shadow were outnumbered and surrounded.

Half-a-minute passes before yells and screams of pain waft upwards towards Dusk, her friends falling to intense physical agony. Even Shadow's voice could be heard as an Egg-Raptor's claws were crushing him between road and machine.

Dusk averted her gaze, but another tentacle wrapped around her forehead and forced her to look back at the crowd. She shut her eyes, but the head-holding tentacle grabbed her right eyelid with a small claw and re-opened it.

"Eggman...please stop..." she said, her voice barely a whisper. Eggman took no notice, instead cheering for his robots to win and maniacally laughing.

That laugh...that horrid, cracky laugh...that was really starting to ignite her temper. Dusk kept getting madder and madder as the laugh rang in her ears. She was also starting to get furious with Eggman for him putting her friends through.

The agony continued for fifteen more seconds before Dusk could feel something else...another power surge was on its way. She could feel the restraint that kept it down starting to fail, and began thrashing around in an attempt to free herself and help her friends before it hit. It was no use, the robot held tightly to her.

As it got closer and closer, Dusk began thrashing harder and harder partly of out the want to help her friends and partly out of fear of her own strength. The robot still refused to free her.

Just as it was about to occur, Dusk became terrified. If it did come, then Eggman would've been beaten for sure, but she was still frightened of her strength. What if she went berserk like in that nightmare that haunted her ever since the first surge? There wouldn't be anyway to stop her...the robots would be gone, but chances were that her friends and the innocent would get caught up in the residual damage.

Dusk did her best to keep it from coming, but it still came. She felt its restraint shatter and the power surge return. Her body became supercharged and Dusk let out a primal roar before easily tearing the tentacles that were holding her out of the Egg-Octopus and began plummeting, leaving the exploding robot behind.

As she came down, Dusk crushed an Egg-Raptor that was beneath her, causing a large dust cloud to get kicked up. Everyone and every machine present froze what they were doing when Dusk landed...the robots all turned to look at the dust cloud, as did the almost beaten Sonic Heroes, and even the hiding citizens that weren't able to flee in time peeked out through the windows at what was happening outside.

Slowly the dust cloud began to thin and Dusk's standing silhouette could be seen...then came that purple haze. The wisps of it flicked out of the dust cloud like tiny embers and as the cloud thinned some more, the haze itself resembled a dancing purple fire.

An Egg-Raptor roared and took a step forward. That was as close as it got...a shadow-tentacle erupted out of its shadow, stabbed clear through the machine, then lifted and slammed it into the road...leaving a small crater behind after it exploded.

Everytime a robot began to approach the dust cloud it fell to the same fate as that Egg-Raptor, smashed into the roadway and left as nothing more than charred parts. Slowly the cloud settled and Dusk could be seen...surrounded in that purple haze. But something wasn't right with her...she still looked the same, but she didn't _seem_ to be the same Dusk. Her face was emotionless, her eyes piercing straight down the road, looking both nowhere and everywhere at the same time, and her body seemed stiff and rigid.

Dusk took a couple steps closer to the still robots, then caused a large tentacle to burst out of the ground and destroy a good ten of them with a single slam. Every robot began charging at her, attacking with everything they had, but to no avail. The first tentacle faded and another grew up that was both shielding her and attacking them at the same time.

The robots continued to come, and it soon looked as though they'd overwhelm Dusk, when the amazing happens...the haze around her began to swirl into a small tornado and a _second _tentacle appeared. The two tentacles made short work of the approaching robots, forcing Eggman to return to his Battleship and flee...but even then something seemed wrong. Dusk's power surge didn't stop, it didn't slow, it didn't even seem to weaken as the robot crowd was decimated.

The tentacles not only destroyed the robots, but began causing damage to the surrounding buildings and roadway. Streetlamps were broken like toothpicks, cars were flung around like pebbles, and deep ditches were plowed into the street and buildings...Dusk had lost control. She had gone berserk.

The heroes watched almost helplessly as Dusk's powers rampaged...none of them knew what to do...none except Amy.

Dusk had finally caved and told Amy what she felt during the first surge. In her words, it was something like a hurricane of emotions inside of her...rage, sadness, fear and the like were all there. She said that it was like being enraged, terrified, miserable, and emotionally hurt all at the same time, and that she barely had control over what her powers did.

Amy had an idea as to how to calm her sister, and it was very dangerous...but it was either take that risk or watch Dusk destroy Station Square. With a deep breath, Amy took off towards her rampaging sister.

"Amy! Don't!" Knuckles yelled.

"You'll get yourself killed!" Sonic added.

Amy ignored the two of them and ran towards her sister. She ducked under a stray streetlamp, and braced herself against the whirling haze. "Dusk!" She yelled.

The purple hedgehog stopped her slow walk and turned to Amy. In her eyes was another haze, dancing around her dull-blue irises, but it was hard to tell whether it was a reflection or actually present.

"Dusk! You have to calm down! Eggman's gone!" Amy yelled, only to be heard over the wind. "I know what you're feeling right now...you've told me. You're scared and enraged and terrified and so many other things all at the same time and its so painful that your powers are acting up in response to it. I don't know what it must feel like to be so confused, scared, and angry all at once, but you don't have to feel that way."

Amy manages to reach her sister despite the strong winds, "I don't like seeing you in this much pain...please...believe me when I say that we're all fine now." the pink hedgehog says before throwing her arms around the purple one.

"Please..." she whispered into her sister's ear.

Dusk stood there for a second before returning Amy's embrace. Her eyes trembled a little before she shut them and drew Amy closer.

The haze began to slow down and fade as the tentacles became smaller. Finally the haze and tentacles fade away, leaving the sisters behind, still embracing one another.

"Amy..." Dusk whispered, "I-I'm so sorry...there wasn't anything I could do. I was so overwhelmed by all of these feelings...I was so mad at Eggman and scared for all of you and..." Dusk's sentence trails off as her eyes open and she takes in everything that she did. All of this damage...all of this destruction...it all came from her.

It was all her fault. Everywhere there was destruction...she saw large ditches plowed into the roads and shattered windows in buildings...there were the remains of cars and streetlights everywhere...she could hear small children crying from their hiding places...she could see only the bravest people peeking out to see what had happened and even they were shaking in fright...it was as if her nightmare had become reality.

Dusk pulls away from Amy as she takes a step back...her voice wasn't here, she was too frightened of what she had done. Dusk took another step or two back, before she quickly whipped around and ran.

"Dusk! Wait!" Amy yelled. She started after her sis, but without Extreme Gear...Dusk was gone. Amy sunk to her knees as she watched her sister's purple light streak fade. "Dusk..." she whispered sadly as a tear fell.

* * *

Dusk had never gone so fast before, she was pushing her gear to their limits to carry her away from what she'd done as fast as possible. She fled from Station Square and sped across plains, grassy fields, and plenty of other terrain that she didn't even notice. Several tears leaked from her eyes and were blown away in the wind her speed was causing.

How in the world was _anyone_ going to trust her now that she had almost leveled half a city? How was Amy still able to believe that she was good? How was anyone?

Dusk had no idea of where she was going, but she didn't really give a care. The damage had been done, and it didn't matter where she'd go...she'd be feared and hated wherever there were people or Mobians. No-one would welcome her, no-one would care for her, no-one would care about her...she was alone again.

Storm-clouds began to gather overhead as Dusk left a grassy plain behind and entered a forest. It might've been Mystic Ruins, but she had run so far that she didn't even know where she was anymore. Her speed began to fall, and her skating motion soon became running, then walking, before she finally stopped underneath a giant tree.

_What do I do now?_ Dusk thought as she stood there, ignoring the steel gray clouds above. _A better question should be, what can I do now? I can't do anything...my place in the world has been sealed...I'm nothing more than someone that everyone fears and hates._

Rain began to fall, somewhere between a drizzle and a heavy rain. Dusk was able to stay dry, thanks to the tree she was under, but she didn't care. Whether soaking wet or bone dry...nothing mattered anymore. Eggman had destroyed any possible hope that she had for a good future. No...no he didn't...Eggman didn't do a thing...

...she did it all.

Dusk notices a puddle form in a small indent in the ground, close to the edge of the tree umbrella. She walks up to it, kneels down, and looks at herself. "Look at what you've done." She said to her reflection, "You practically leveled downtown Station Square. You've absolutely terrified the public. And to top it all off, you've ruined your life...all because of this damn curse!"

"Is that all I can do? Is that all that my future holds?" She yells into the air, "Is there nothing for me but pain, suffering, and destruction? Why me?"

Dusk thrusts a fist into the puddle, sending the water everywhere and destroying her reflection. "Why me...why couldn't I've just been left alone? Why did I even have to be created in the first place?!"

Dusk couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out sobbing. She curls up, buries her face into her hands, and begins sobbing her shattered little heart out.

A few minutes pass with the only sound heard is her sobs mixing with the rain. Then a voice meets her ears...asking, "Dusk?" as if it was unsure that it had found the right girl.

Dusk removes her face from her hands and looks to the see the last person she'd have ever thought to see...Shadow.

"What do you want Shadow?" she asks, a bitter tone seeping into her voice, "Come to say that you'll never trust me again after what I've done? Sorry to break it to you, but I know that already." she adds while turning away from him.

"Actually...I came to see if you were okay."

"What?" Dusk asks, turning back to the black and red hedgehog.

"I followed you to see if you were okay or not."

"No Shadow. I'm not okay. You saw what I did with your own eyes...I almost took Station Square off the map...how is the public going to trust me now? How is _anyone_ going to trust me now?" She says while tears begin to re-form in her eyes. "I'm worthless now...just some...horrible creation of science, saddled with an awful curse that no-one wants to be around."

She begins crying again and re-buries her face into her hands. "Why do you even care?" she asks through the sobs.

"Because we're friends and I care about my friends."

Dusk ignores that sentence and continues crying...she didn't want an answer, she just wanted Shadow to leave. But the umber hedgehog doesn't leave...he does just the opposite.

He approaches the sobbing hedgehog, lowers himself to her level, and gently lifts her head from her hands. "Dusk...things like this happen. One time, before you came along, Eggman was attacking Westopolis and I let my emotions get out of control...I blew an entire city block to bits, but luckily no-one was hurt."

"Yes but you're a hero in the public's eyes, Shadow. I'm nothing more than some thing that Eggman created and is living amongst them. You they can forgive, but they'll never forgive me..."

"I wasn't always a hero...way way before you came along, several years ago, I almost destroyed the whole planet."

Dusk's eyes widened a little, "You?"

Shadow nods, "Its a long, complicated story, but at the core of it...I was so mad and hurt because of what happened to one of my friends...Maria...that I just wanted revenge on everyone."

"How bad was it? Was it like a broken arm or paralysis?"

Shadow doesn't reply verbally, instead he shuts his eyes and looks away. Dusk quickly gasps and covers her mouth, "Oh Shadow...I-I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to pry."

"Its alright Dusk, no harm done. Regardless of what happened to me, what I'm trying to say is that I still trust you because I know what you go through when your powers overload like that. It feels like there's just this...tempest of overwhelming feelings inside you. Am I right?"

Dusk nods.

"Then you and I feel the same thing. Rage, fury, a little sadness...maybe even fear. Am I right again?"

Another nod.

"Its not your fault that you feel this way...you're just really protective of your friends and sister. You hate seeing them in that kind of pain, and that mixed with your anger towards Eggman and fear of losing us set off your surge...right?"

"What are you? A psychic or something?" Dusk playfully asks, her way of saying 'yes'.

Shadow gives Dusk a small smile before gently running a couple fingers through her quills, and is pleased when she doesn't resist, "You're not a horrible creation of science Dusk, you don't have a curse, and you're definitely not worthless. All I can see, is a kind girl with a gift and the potential to be nothing short of amazing, and she's protective of her friends. I don't care if absolutely nobody else trusts you, I always will, because we know what the other has to go through when their powers act up."

Dusk can feel new tears, this time from joy and relief, start to form as she looks into Shadow's eyes. Those red irises were solid and strong, a sign that he wasn't lying, and that brought her some much needed comfort. He may not have been the most cheerful of Mobians, but right now...he was a bright light in Dusk's dismal world.

Her tears begin to slide down her cheeks as Dusk cuddles up to Shadow, resting her head against his chest, right in the tuft of white fur. That patch of fur is surprsingly comfortable and Dusk begins burying deeper into it, somewhat forgetting that she was lying on a friend right now.

Shadow doesn't mind her actions and simply allows Dusk to get as comfortable as she wanted. Once the purple hedgehog was content, Shadow slipped one of his arms around Dusk to prevent her from slipping away. He heard her release a pleased sigh before slipping her own arms around him.

After a couple minutes pass, Shadow feels her tears stop and expected Dusk to pull away, but is somewhat curious when she doesn't move at all. He looks down at her and sees that she's oddly still and her breathing has slowed. Shadow moves his head to get a better view of Dusk's face and lets a small smile form at what he saw...

...she had fallen asleep.

_You've had a long rough day Dusk... _the umber hedgehog thinks as he gently ran a couple fingers through her quills again, _Hopefully I've helped._

He waited a couple minutes to make sure that she was completely asleep, then gently lifted her into his arms and started back for Station Square.

Shadow managed to reach Dusk's apartment building without drawing any attention and used a short-range Chaos Control to teleport the two of them into her room. She must've been tired out from what happened...not even her breathing was disrupted from the light flash.

Shadow set the purple hedgehog onto her bed then whispered, "Pleasant dreams Dusk." before exiting the room and leaving via Chaos Control in the hallway.

* * *

**Well...there's the next chapter. A bit of a battle, some hardship, and some comfort from an unexpected source. I don't know why, but a little something seems to be off or missing with this chapter...I can't tell what though. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed it!**


	25. Calm Before the Storm

**Alright, a bit of an announcement needs to be made this is probably going to be the last peaceful chapter until the finale which, by the way, is fast approaching. Yea, I know...the end of a story is bittersweet for everyone, but that's how its got to go. So...enjoy the final soft chapter until the ending comes, hope you all like it.**

* * *

Chapter 25 Calm before the Storm

Not surprisingly, the public was not too fond of Dusk's powers going bezerk and wrecking downtown. In fact, there was a fairly good sized crowd outside of her apartment building when the purple hedgehog awoke. That was the last straw...Dusk opened the window, stuck her head out and gave that crowd a very stern talking to. She finally released what it was like being lied to from the beginning of your life, then being hated for trying to make up for the mistakes she made before.

The closing line of her venting was, "If any of you don't like me, that's your problem that you will have to deal with because my furry little self is going nowhere. I suggest ditching your egos, going home, and leaving me alone!" before Dusk pulled her head back in and slammed the window shut.

* * *

Its relatively calm tonight...odd considering that the day before last was Eggman's assault on Station Square and tomorrow will be the Sonic team's counter-attack. A soft, gentle night-breeze blew its way across the surface of Mystic Ruins, there were thousands of twinkling stars in the night sky being company to the full moon, not a cloud to be seen...all of it fooled one as to what was going to happen come morning.

All of the Sonic gang (minus Cream) was gathered at Tails' house along with three extra faces...Vector, Espio, and Charmy; Team Chaotix. The large group was going over the plans for their attack on Eggman for the last time...the basic form of it would be that Tails and the Chaotix would distract Eggman from the outside while Sonic, Amy, Blaze, and Silver went for the command bridge and Dusk, Shadow, Rouge, and Knuckles went for the emeralds.

Dusk was in a corner of the living room near the door, and had an unamused look on her face. This was the sixth time Tails had gone over the plan and she had memorized her part during the second time. She did have an important role...Dusk was the only person who knew the full layout of the Battleship and it was her job to take Sonic's team and her team as far as possible before splitting up, then give directions so that Sonic's team wouldn't get lost.

It wasn't like that was hard...even after a couple months of being away from the Battleship, Dusk still remembered her way around it. Just give Sonic the directions to the bridge then lead her team to the vault...like that was hard to remember.

Tails was busy explaining the plan to the rest of the crowd, but Dusk's mind was elsewhere...she was incredibly nervous about the whole attack. It was very well thought out and had a great chance of succeeding, bu she couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to screw the whole thing up.

_I've gotta get rid of this uneasiness...maybe I just need some fresh air._ She thinks before slipping outside, alerting no-one but the black and red hedgehog that was on the other side of the room.

"Where is she going?" Shadow whispers to himself before starting after her. Unlike Dusk, Shadow's movements alert everyone and the first to comment on it was Tails.

"Shadow? Where are you going?"

"Out."

"Why? We're in the middle of reviewing the attack."

"I already know my part in this attack, and if I want to leave then I'm going to leave," is Shadow's reply. None of the other Mobians say anything to argue as he walks up to the door and leaves.

Outside, Shadow finds Dusk lying down on her back in a patch of grass, gazing off at the stars above. He silently walks up to the purple hedgehog and asks, "Is something wrong Dusk?"

Dusk tilts her head to look at Shadow, "Hmm?"

"I noticed that you left for some reason. Is everything okay?"

Dusk sits up as a slightly sad look crosses her face. "I've just got this bad feeling about our attack on Eggman. Its going to be really nice to finally get back at that jerk for what he did to me...but I can't shake the feeling that something is going to go wrong." She sighs, "Watching the stars always calmed my mind down before, but its not working tonight..." She ends while looking back up into the sky.

Shadow also turns his gaze skyward to observe the twinkling lights high above him. Dusk did have a point, they were somewhat calming to watch. His bright red irises scanned back and forth across the heavens, silently picking out constellations before he turned back to the purple hedgehog.

"They are pretty to watch, aren't they?"

Dusk releases a soft grunt to agree.

"You know I was born way up there, right?"

"Yup. It was in the file Eggman gave me about you." Dusk pauses, "Shadow the Hedgehog, AKA the Ultimate Life Form. Created over 50 years ago by Prof Gerald Robotnik aboard the Space Colony ARK. Was only able to enjoy a little bit of life before GUN attacked and forced you to evacuate. Was captured and put into suspended animation until Eggman freed you. The rest of it was lies though, Sonic and the others told me the real stories."

"Impressive."

Dusk giggles for a second, "Thanks."

Suddenly a thought occurred to Shadow...why not take Dusk up there? Why not take Dusk up to the ARK? It might take her mind off of the attack tomorrow. She did say that she enjoyed watching stars, and the view from the ARK's observation deck was unmatched.

Normally Shadow wouldn't have considered this, mainly because the ARK was a sort of sanctuary to him...a place for him to go to when he wanted to be sure of being alone. But he could trust Dusk, and he did have some respect and (maybe) a little admiration towards her for having to deal with so much in a relatively short life.

"Dusk?" Shadow asks to get her attention, "What would you say if I said I could take you up there to be among those stars?"

Dusk jumps to her feet and looks at her black and red friend, "I'd ask, how? I don't think you've got any spaceships just lying around."

Shadow smirks and reachs into his quills, removing the gray Chaos Emerald from its hiding place. "With this and your trust." he replies.

Dusk smiles at him and says, "Alright. Take me there."

"Then take my hand." he says while extending his left hand (the gray emerald was in his right). Dusk reaches out and gently takes Shadow's hand. "Are you holding on tight?" A nod. "Alright then..." Shadow squeezes the Chaos Emerald, causing its glow to intensify, and says, "Chaos...Control!"

The next thing that Dusk feels is like nothing she ever imagined. A light begins to surround the two hedgehogs and the surrounding air began to feel warmer. The slightly chilly autumn air at Mystic Ruins was suddenly warm and comfortable, no different from the air around a fireplace. Dusk sighs as the warmth of the air sinks into her and the light completely surrounds her and Shadow.

Within a second, the light brightened, then disappeared, taking Mystic Ruins and the warmth with it, leaving a dimly-lit metal room behind.

"Where am I?" Dusk asks, confused as to how coming to this room would give her a good view of the stars.

Shadow lets go of her hand to point behind her, "Take a look."

Dusk turns around and gasps...there was an enormous, panoramic window that offered a breathtaking view of space. There were millions upon millions of twinkling stars back-dropped by the lovely ebony black of space, and right in the middle of all of it was the Earth; a giant orb made up of emerald greens, sapphire blues, and pure whites that seemed to give off its own glow...the entire view was so beautiful, that it left Dusk thinking this might have been a prank of some kind.

She walks up to the window and rests a hand against the glass, expecting it to bend like a screen or sheet. The window held firm though, proving that this was the real deal.

"This is...amazing." She says, her voice carrying over her now awe-struck condition.

"This...is Space Colony ARK." Shadow replies.

Dusk turns to him with a surprised look, "Are you serious?! This is the ARK?!"

Shadow nods, "Space Colony ARK...my birthplace. Do you enjoy the view?"

Dusk smiles at Shadow and walks over to the small bench he was sitting on. "I love this view Shadow, you were born in the most beautiful of places." she says while sitting down beside him, "In a way, you could call the ARK my birthplace too. I wasn't created here like you were, but the idea that did lead to me came from up here."

Shadow releases a small grunt to show that he agreed, then waits about half-a-minute before speaking. "This is one of my favorite rooms in the entire colony...I used to spend a lot of time here with Maria...that is, until she was..." he stops without finishing his sentence, the memories being to hard for him to continue.

Dusk doesn't push him into continuing, she remembered what had happened to Maria and how much it upset Shadow before. The purple hedgehog sets her hand onto Shadow's shoulder and says, "Its alright Shadow...you don't need to explain anything." The black and red hedgehog turns to look at Dusk and, although his expression hardly changed, she could tell he was thanking her.

Dusk gives him a smile and turns back towards the window while removing her hand. Shadow, however, kept his gaze fixed on his company.

The gray Chaos Emerald was sitting between the two of them, and its soft, un-colored glow gently wrapped around the folds of her clothes and the gentle curves of her body and face. It accented the purple hedgehog's slender figure and moved in perfect unison with her breathing. Dusk was nothing short of beautiful in the Chaos Emerald's light and with the way it clung to her...it wouldn't have been an understatement to call her the angel of Space Colony ARK...the only thing missing was a pair of wings.

After a minute passed, Dusk glanced at Shadow and saw that he was still looking at her. "Is something wrong Shadow?" she asks while turning back towards him, causing the glow to wash over her face and weave around even the slightest curve.

"No..." he replies while turning away, "Why do ask?"

Dusk giggles a little as she slides closer to him, "Come on Shadow...I saw you observing me. What were you thinking?"

"Nothing..."

"Alright...if you really don't want to talk about it..." Dusk says while gently taking his hand, "But I'll listen when you want to." Before Shadow could respond, Dusk leans over and rests her head onto his shoulder. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Not a bit." he replies, getting Dusk to sigh and move just a little bit closer.

Shadow glances at the purple hedgehog and smiles a little. He didn't admit it aloud, but he did feel a little attracted towards Dusk now that she was on his side. She was pretty cute, and he liked the way that one quill drooped down and blocked part of her left eye. He also liked the shade of blue that was present in her eyes...he wasn't a big fan of blue, but he did like that dulled shade.

Now that he was thinking about it, there was little that he _didn't_ like about her. She was a quiet, thoughtful girl...she didn't mind his moodiness that much...and she was very understanding. Dusk was a Rose, her temper proved that, but she had much more control than Amy, who could go off over some of the most trivial things. She could hold her own in a fight with him, an impressive feat in itself, and even keep pace with him thanks to the skates she wore. Probably one of the things he liked the most about her, was that she knew what it was like to have been created in a lab and have a rough past.

As he watched the purple hedgehog out of the corner of his eye, Shadow came to realize that he really did like everything about her.

Dusk felt him slip an arm around her waist and draw her closer after moving the Chaos Emerald out of the way. Dusk put an arm of her own around Shadow's waist as he gently rested his head against hers. After maybe ten seconds came something that she doubted Shadow would've done...

...she felt him plant a kiss behind her left ear. A small, tender kiss to the base of her left ear.

It wasn't a big, dramatic moment and was over before Dusk fully realized what Shadow did, but she still enjoyed it. She actually was still a little nervous about tomorrow's attack, but Shadow's affectionate gesture put her mind to rest. She knew that she could handle any robots that Eggman might have kept around, but it was also comforting to know that Shadow was going to protect her.

"Thanks Shadow...I like you too." is all that she said before snuggling a little bit closer.

Shadow said nothing in reply, but snugged up his grip around her waist...around the beautiful, purple Rose that was lying against him.


	26. The Final Battle Part 1: A Rough Start

**(sighes) Here we go...the beginning of the final battle for Dusk Sets, and as a result the official beginning of the end for this story. All in all, it looks as though there will be a total of thirty chapters by the time Dusk Sets ends...the final battle itself will be broken into multiple parts, four in total, and then comes the epilogue.**

**I should probably also say this again, I don't own Sonic, Eggman, or any other official characters, all of them are owned by SEGA/Sonic Team. The only character/vehicles I own is Dusk and a new jet that premieres in this chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 26 The Final Battle Part 1: A Rough Start

Eggman absolutely refuses to quit, even when his chances are grim, and that pest took an opportunity that Sonic and the other's unwittingly gave him...

While the Sonic gang was gathered at Tails' house, Eggman launched two sneak attacks, one at Blaze's palace and the other on GUN's base on Prison Island, stealing nearly every emerald that Sonic's crew had.

There were only four that managed to avoid capture; the gray Chaos Emerald (which was with Shadow), the purple Chaos Emerald (which was at Tails' house), and the yellow and green Sol Emeralds which were with Blaze.

How did he do it? The firepower of the Egg-Battleship helped greatly in both cases, but there were also reports of some mysterious new robot that helped in both attacks. It was described as an Egg-Raptor with an attitude that made the other Egg-Raptors seem docile, and had plenty more firepower as well as being significantly larger than the normal Egg-Raptor.

Regardless of the troubling news, everyone still gathered at Tails' workshop in the morning, ready to bring Eggman down again.

* * *

The eleven-Mobian strong crowd is gathered in Tails' living room, waiting for the fox to finish prepping the jet. About two minutes after he disappeared down into his big workshop, Tails returned and brought the rest of the crowd into his underground workshop...where a new jet was waiting for them.

The jet was quite a bit longer than the old X-Tornado and it could be seen that there were three cockpits instead of just two. The whole thing was very sleek and streamlined, which was done on purpose to provide the most aerodynamic shape possible. There were two large engines on the back, same as the X-Tornado, but these had gentle contours in their shape and were much more streamlined than the boxy engines that the X-Tornado had. The four wings were still present at the front, the lower two being folded inward, but were set backward at a smaller angle than the X-Tornado's. The wings in the back seemed to be the same as the X-Tornado's, and the paint job was pretty similar, but those were the only two things this jet shared with its predecessor.

"Tails...what happened to the X-Tornado?" Sonic asks after a couple second of gawking.

Tails smirks as he flies onto the jet, "This _is_ the X-Tornado, or rather it used to be. I kept thinking up so many improvements and tweaks while rebuilding it that I finally wound up making a brand new jet. This is the X-Hurricane." the fox proudly says as his tails flick around, "This is faster, steadier, and more powerful than the X-Tornado was, and one of its many new features is side thrusters which allow the X-Hurricane to smoothly pivot or rotate to turn in addition to banking, which means that wing-riding is now much safer."

"Wow Tails...you never run out of creativity, do you?" Amy asks.

Tails snickers and gestures for the others to begin boarding. All of the Mobians take their appropriate places, Tails and Charmy in the front cockpit, Vector and Silver in the middle cockpit, Rouge and Blaze in the rear cockpit, and Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles, Amy, Dusk, and Espio out on the wings, and await takeoff.

"Alright guys, you'd better hold on...this baby is _fast_." Tails waits only for the hangar doors to open and a runway to extend from the cliff-side before beginning to taxi outward. The doors close after the jet exits (to shield the workshop from the heat and thrust of the engines), and Tails begins revving the plane up.

As the engines begin to charge up power, a loud, high-pitched whine is heard from them. After maybe a ten-second charge, Tails slams the throttle to its max, causing the engines to release a loud roar as the jet shoots forward at such a speed that it would've thrown the six Mobians off had they not been clinging to the wings.

The X-Hurricane leaves the runway and begins a surprisingly steady flight, which only becomes smoother when Tails extends the lower wings. Slowly the wing-riders un-latch themselves from the jet to stand back up, once they felt safe enough to do so.

This flight was so amazing for Dusk, standing on the metal wings of a jet soaring through the sky faster the Eggman's chair could ever hoped to have gone, the wind blowing through her quills and into her face...this really got her blood and adrenaline pumping. She'd rather fly on the X-Hurricane's wings instead of Eggman's wimpy chair anyday.

"You doing okay Dusk?" Sonic asks from his spot on the other side of the jet.

"Yea, I'm doing fine. This is so much fun!" She exclaims to reply

"Don't get distracted Dusk, remember, our goal is to take down Eggman." Espio states.

"Yea yea..." she replies, waving a hand to brush Espio's comment aside. "You need to unwind a little." she adds under her breath.

After a roughly ten-minute flight, the silhouette of the Egg-Battleship appears above the X-Hurricane. Tails gingerly pulls back to gain altitude, aiming to eventually get above the massive airship.

Finally their plan begins to work. The X-Hurricane flies above the much larger Egg-Battleship and approaches from behind. "Alright guys, this is it. Get ready to board the Battleship." Tails announces.

* * *

Eggman was reclining in his chair, greatly pleased at his apparent turn of luck. With the emerald count now in his favor, plus the Master Emerald aboard, and a few very destructive robots left with him, the genius was positive that he was going to win this time.

He lets out a pleased sigh, after gazing at the radar to make sure the airspace was clear. "Finally, the day has come to finish off Sonic for good. All I need is the last of the emeralds to make sure my victory is assured." He mumbles to himself, "Decoe, Bocoe, maintain watch...I'm going to take a well-earned nap." he orders before reclining a little more and preparing to fall asleep.

Just as his eyes shut and sleep began to take over, the alarms went off. The loud noise was such a shock that Eggman lurched upright and toppled out of his chair with a yell, bashing his head on a computer console in the process.

"What...what is going on?" he asks while rubbing where his skull and metal met.

"Some jet has entered our airspace at an incredibly high speed." Bocoe replies.

"Yes, it is approaching from behind." Decoe adds.

"On-screen!" Eggman orders. One of the computer screens in front of him changes to the best possible rear-view. He could definitely see a jet approaching, and from the small crowd out on the wings, Eggman guessed that it was Sonic attempting a counter-attack. "Hmph...time to shoot them down again." he mutters while turning on the auto-defenses.

* * *

"Get ready to evade some fire Tails." Dusk says, "Eggman's probably spotted us by now."

"How do you know? The Battleship hasn't done anything yet." Rouge states. Barely a second after Rouge finishes her sentence, laser fire begins flying towards them.

"Hold on!" Tails yells while making the jet strafe to the left, avoiding the first wave of laser fire. Another laser barrage flies toward the jet and again they strafe out of the way.

This pattern of strafe, get fired at, strafe again continues for the next minute before the X-Hurricane clears the superstructure. Tails pushes the flight stick forward, making the jet lower itself so much that he almost crashes into the flight deck...almost. A second before the X-Hurricane crashes, Tails levels the plane out and slows down enough for the passengers to leave.

"Everybody off!" The fox yells. The middle and rear cockpits open with a 'swoosh', allowing their occupants to leap out with the other six. The instant their shoes hit the ground, the crowd runs up to the doorway inside, which was currently sealed shut, while the X-Hurricane takes flight again to begin firing on the Battleship.

"Hey Knuckles, you think this will keep us out?" Vector asks, clenching his fist.

"Heh, not a chance." Knuckles replies.

With a yell, croc and echidna throw three punches each which is enough to blow the metal doors clear apart.

"Good luck you all." Espio says before hurrying off towards a few turrets.

"Yea, we'll do our best to cause havoc out here. You guys worry about finding Egg-head and the emeralds." Vector adds before charging at a couple turrets.

"Come on guys, just follow me." Dusk instructs before taking off into the large ship, her allies following on her heels.

The crowd of eight charge through the winding hallways of the Egg-Battleship, following Dusk's every move. Left turns, right turns, down a few staircases and along hallways that seemed to go on forever, everywhere the purple hedgehog went, the other seven followed.

Finally the purple hedgehog stops at a split in the hallway, one route went to the left, the other to the right.

Dusk turns toward her friends with a serious look on her face, "Alright guys, here is where we have to part ways." She points down the left hallway, "Sonic, that hallway will lead to a nearby staircase that will take you part of the way to Eggman. Just keep going upward and you'll find him. Oh, and don't bother with the elevators, when the Battleship is under attack they shut down."

"Thanks for the advice Dusk, now come on guys...lets go get Eggman." Sonic exclaims before moving down the hallway. Silver follows immediately, but Blaze tosses a small something to Dusk...the green Sol Emerald.

"You're giving me this?" Dusk asks with confusion riddling her voice.

"Sol Emeralds increase their holder's abilities. Don't worry about me, I've still got one." Blaze says before giving a thumbs-up and hurrying after the hedgehogs.

Dusk begins down the right hallway, but stops when Amy's arms come around her. "Keep safe sis...and good luck." The pink hedgehog says in a firm but still gentle voice.

"Thanks sis, you too." Dusk replies while returning the hug.

Amy lets go and hurries after her team, leaving Dusk's team to head down the right hallway towards the vault. Her trip was pretty un-eventful, the only major thing that happened was a detour around some damage which probably happened during one of Eggman's sneak attacks.

The fastest way to the vault was to take a shortcut across the training room, which is exactly the path that Dusk took...but it turned out to be a trap. Waiting for the purple hedgehog in that room were two Egg-Raptors...but they weren't the normal ones.

These robots had jet-black armor with plenty of nasty looking spikes running down the back and coming off the wrists and ankles. They were larger than the white Egg-Raptors, had an extra claw on each hand and foot, and were most likely more aggressive than their white counterparts.

"_Mwahahaha..."_Eggman's voice laughed through the speaker system, _"How do you like these creations of mine Dusk? I call them the Terra-Egg Raptors and they put the original Egg-Raptors to shame."_

"Do you want my real answer or a fake compliment?" Dusk semi-growled back at the speakers.

Her group could hear Eggman grunt in an unamused tone. _"Still so rebellious...my raptors will have to fix that."_

Without warning, the two doorways into the training room slam shut and lock the Mobians in with the robots.

"Do you really think those pathetic doors will hold us in?" Rouge asks in an arrogant tone.

"_It doesn't matter...none of you will survive the attack of my Terra-Egg Raptors. And you can forget about that second group you sent to get me, I've already dispatched some Terras to get them as well."_

Dusk lets out a small gasp at the danger Amy was in, but her nervousness subsides when Shadow puts a hand on her shoulder and whispers, "Don't worry about Amy, she's got Sonic, Blaze, Silver, and her temper to keep her safe."

The purple hedgehog gives a quick smile to the umber one before preparing to fight. Not a second after she got into her stance, did the two Raptors roar and charge at the group...beginning a battle that would eventually cause the downfall of two people...or rather, one human and one Mobian...


	27. The Final Battle Part 2: Impossible Odds

Chapter 27 The Final Battle Part 2: Impossible Odds

Dusk and Shadow leapt off to the left and Knuckles and Rouge dove to the right, all four succeeding in avoiding a painful trampling by the Terra-Egg Raptors.

The two large robots skidded a little as they tried to stop and turn around, and were promptly hit in the sides by Chaos Spears courtesy of Shadow. To everyone's shock though...the spears barely scratched the Raptors' jet black armor...the only thing Shadow's attack even seemed to do was tick off the already mad robots.

One of them lunged at the hedgehog pair while the other went after the two treasure hunters, teeth bared and claws at the ready.

Knuckles dove out of the way of his Terra while Rouge flew above it, and the two countered with a fist to the side and a Screw Kick from above respectively. Their attacks managed to chip the armor and Rouge made a tiny dent, but little beyond that.

The Raptor knew it couldn't hit Rouge easily, what with the bat being on its back, but Knuckles was an easy target and quickly swings its tail around to smash him in the sides. The echidna grunted from the hard blow and was flung into a wall...leaving a fairly well made, echidna shaped dent in it.

Rouge gasped at what happened to her ally and quickly swung a leg around to deliver a kick to its eyes, she managed to shatter the robot's right eye, which caused it to roar and flail around, throwing her from its back.

Meanwhile, with their two-eyed Raptor, Dusk and Shadow were busy tag-teaming the big robot. Shadow drew its fire while Dusk got in a free hit, then Dusk would annoy the raptor to let Shadow get a free hit.

This tactic was working...but again, the main problem was that its armor refused to break, and barely dented under the kicks and other attacks the two were doing. The greatest damage that this one took was a chipped tooth, courtesy of a kick from Dusk that was aimed for the eyes, but the robot moved at the last second causing it to lose a tooth instead of an eye.

"How are we supposed to beat this thing when we can't even scratch it?" Dusk asks, jumping away from a swipe of the robot's long claws.

"We'll find someway of doing it Dusk." Shadow replies, just before ramming into one of its legs with a shoulder ram. "Just don't let your guard down!"

* * *

A loud yell echoes across the flight deck of the Egg-Battleship before a loud explosion caused by the collision of two turrets. Vector grins and cracks a few knuckles, pleased at his work. "Ha!" The croc laughs, "I've been needing a way to vent my anger and this is doing fine. You doing okay Espio?"

"Yes." is the ninja's emotionless reply, "I've almost managed to...Vector! Watch out!" he suddenly warns.

Before Vector could react, he was tackled to the ground underneath a small, eight-legged robot. "Urg...get offa me!" he yells before throwing the robot aside like it was made of paper. The spider-bot landed upside down, and Vector stomps on it...destroying the robot immediately.

He hears some mechanical clanking from behind him and turns to see three more spiders approaching. Before he could attack, three shuriken strike each spider and render them useless.

"Heh...thanks Esp-behind you!"

Espio turns around to see a spider bearing down on him, but quickly stabs the robot's underside with a few kunai, then follows up with several jabs that fully disable it.

"Thanks Vector...but it would appear that we have more company." Espio states as he notices several small crowds of the spiders heading towards them.

Up above those two, the X-Hurricane screamed by, closely followed by five Egg-Hawks. The jet's computer system's gave a quick warning to Charmy and handed control of the rear guns over to him, allowing the bee to shoot at the approaching enemies.

Charmy immediately opened fire; shooting down three of the robot birds and damaging the other two enough for the robots to back off.

"Ha-ha!" He laughs, "I got 'em!"

"Nice shooting Charmy, but don't get too distracted...here come more!" Tails replies. A quick computer warning confirms more Egg-Hawks approaching from the sides, and Charmy is soon firing upon those robots. The three that were coming in were shot down two seconds after the bee was given control of the side guns.

The two continue flying around, shooting down Eggman's robots for the next ten minutes before their luck seems to run out. The computer issues an incredibly loud beep before giving Charmy control of the rear guns. That wasn't the bad part...it was what he saw through the camera accompanying the guns.

"Uhh...Tails...we've got a problem..." He nervously says.

"What?"

"Its a really, really big robot...take a look..."

Tails glances over at computer screen and is immediately filled with caution, fear, and rage...

...the Egg-Ptera was soaring towards them.

"You're going to pay for shooting me down..." Tails growls under his breath. "Hang on Charmy!" he yells before doing a barrel roll off to the left, making the robot miss its tackle by mere inches. "Hurry! Open fire!"

"You don't need to tell me twice!" Charmy exclaims while firing upon the Ptera's backside.

The Ptera lets out a screech before firing several of its own weapons towards the X-Hurricane. Again, Tails pulls a barrel roll to dodge.

"If its a fight you want, its a fight you'll get!" He growls beneath his breath before using some of the 'pilot-only' guns on the robot.

* * *

Sonic and his group were hurrying through the hallways leading to the control room, going as fast as Silver could run (Amy, despite being the slowest normally, was using her own pair of Extreme Gear skates to keep pace with the other three, much faster Mobians).

Sonic was leading the way, and was following Dusk's advice of 'just keep going up'. Everytime the group found a stairway upwards, they hurried upwards and began looking for the next way up. They were maybe around the halfway mark of the climb, but at least they knew that Eggman could only be in one direction.

As they hurried down one of the hallways and past a side-route, Blaze suddenly yelled, "Stop!"

Immediately the others skidded to a stop and looked at the feline. "What is it Blaze?" Amy asked.

"I could've sworn I heard something down that turn-off." she replies while walking back towards it. Blaze takes a look down the hallway, but sees absolutely nothing.

She continues looking for a couple seconds before shrugging and turning back to return to the others. As her foot begins to move for that first step, three sudden, loud metallic stomps are heard before Blaze is rammed by a Terra-Egg Raptor and thrown down another hallway with a scream.

"Blaze!" Silver yells before leading the charge after the Terra that went chasing after Blaze. The silver hedgehog rounds the corner and quickly hits the robot with a psychic shockwave, relieving the pressure its foot was putting on Blaze.

Sonic chases after the flying robot while Silver and Amy hurry over to Blaze's side. "Blaze...Blaze, are you alright?" Silver asks while helping her sit up.

The cat coughs a little before replying, "Yea...it just caught me by surprise, that's all."

Two seconds after her sentence ends, Sonic releases a loud grunt of pain as the Terra-Raptor headbutts him.

Silver growls a little at the black robot before looking at Amy. "You watch Blaze, I'll go help Sonic." he says before darting off towards the fierce robot.

Amy quickly rests a hand to Blaze's back to keep the slightly stunned feline upright and asks, "You sure you're okay Blaze? It looks like you're rocking back and forth a little."

"Getting tackled by a half-ton robot would probably through anyone's balance off a little."

Before Amy could reply, the two girls hear a loud stomp acommpanied by a roar. They turn and see that a second Terra had found the group and was blocking the only path away from the Terra that Sonic and Silver were currently fighting.

Blaze stands and surrounds her hands in fire, while Amy forms a hammer. "You ready for a tough fight Amy?"

"Lets take this thing down Blaze."

The two females let out a yell and charge at the Raptor, ready for a fight.

* * *

Knuckles and Rouge weren't having much luck with their Raptor...beyond the ruined eye that Rouge did, the only other serious injury was its crushed gatling gun tail, courtesy of a very mad echidna.

Rouge and Knuckles were currently backing away from their beyond-furious Raptor, tired out from doing attacks that didn't do much damage.

"Well Rouge...if we don't find some way out of this, both of our treasure-hunting careers are over..." Knuckles says.

"Don't be so pessimistic Knuckles, there's got to...wait! That might work!"

"What might work?"

Before Rouge could answer, the Raptor charged at them. In an instant she grabbed Knuckles' hand and launched herself into the air, taking the echidna with her. They slowed to a float and Rouge quickly said, "Knuckles, I want you to throw me at that Raptor as hard as you can."

He gives her a look that asked, "What are you, crazy?"

"Trust me."

"Alright...get ready!" Knuckles began to spin up in the air, accelerating Rouge to faster and faster speeds. Finally, after about seven spins, Knuckles throws her straight at the Raptor's back.

She was going head-first towards the spikes, but Rouge used her wings to flip around then begin spinning like a top. The sharp, steel points of her boots formed a spinning drill and the bat rammed into the robot with enough force to slam its body against the ground. In addition to virtually shattering its legs, Rouge was able to drill through the armor and leave a nice weak spot for a descending echidna.

"Outta my way!" Knuckles yelled as he flew at the Raptor. Rouge jumped away and barely managed to dodge a jagged fist. The punch landed perfectly into the weak spot Rouge made, shattered the armor and totalled the machinery inside. This Terra was now effectively destroyed.

Over on the other side of the training room, Dusk and Shadow were still managing to keep their Terra occupied. The two hedgehogs had managed to damage its legs and slow it down, but they had done little beyond that.

"Hey Shadow!" Dusk yells after leaping over the Raptor's tail.

"What?!" He yells back before kicking the Terra in the jaw.

"I've got an idea on how to stop this thing! Get it to use either its mouth laser or missiles!"

"Who do you think I am? Sonic?"

"Just do it!"

"This idea better work." Shadow mumbles under his breath. "Hey! You worthless piece of scrap! I bet that laser of yours is weaker than a flashlight!"

The Terra lets out a snarl and begins charging its mouth-laser. With a flick of her wrist, Dusk made a tentacle fly out of the Raptor's shadow and wrap around its jaw, forcing it shut.

Having no way to vent the energy buildup, the Terra began to thrash around in an effort to get the tentacle to let go. Dusk keeps the shadow firmly wrapped around its mouth and once the energy buildup is great enough the Terra's head explodes.

After a little staggering, the head-less Raptor collapses onto the ground...just as Knuckles and Rouge reach them to help.

"Well...it seems like you two are pretty efficient when it comes to taking down a robot..." Rouge remarks upon seeing their work.

"Heh, I'll say...taking its head off is a pretty fast way of stopping anything..." Knuckles adds.

"We can chat later...lets get out of here before more Terras have a chance to show up." Dusk says before leading the group over to the door that leads to the vault.

Rouge and Knuckles easily tear apart the door and the crowd speed out of the training room, eager to make up for lost time.

* * *

Espio and Vector were back-to-back outside on the flight deck, surrounded by Egg-Spiders. Luckily for them, the robots didn't have any firearms, but their melee attacks packed quite a wallop...several bruises on Vector's arms and back were proof of that.

"I can't see any way out of this..." Vector mutters, eyeing all of the approaching robots.

"Do not lose hope Vector...there is always a way out." Espio replies, his ninja eyes shooting back and forth across the crowd of spiders.

Just as the crowd of robots readies to pounce on the two Mobians, Vector spies the X-Hurricane flying straight towards them. "Espio! Our ride is here!" he shouts while leaping for a wing. Espio glances at the jet, leaps high into the air, and backflips onto the top of the rear cockpit. Vector had managed to grab onto the wing's edge, and hauled himself up just as Espio touched down.

"Tails!" Charmy exclaims, "Both of 'em are onboard!"

"Alright!" Tails exclaims before asking, "Are the two of you alright?" into the speaker system.

"Yea! We're good! Thanks Tails!" Vector replies.

The X-Hurricane flies out past the edge of the flight deck and ascends back to a relatively safe elevation above the Egg-Battleship. However, not ten seconds after they fly out into open air, the Egg-Ptera shoots by on the jet's left, causing a wind that almost blew the two wing-riders off.

"I have had just about enough of you..." Tails mumbles while turning the jet to face the Egg-Ptera, "Have a taste of your own medicine!" He yells before slamming the throttle to max and switching on the afterburners.

With a deafening roar the X-Hurricane instantly speeds up to beyond Mach 1 and flies past the Egg-Ptera, creating such a strong slipstream that the robot is blown around like tissue paper. Tails jams the control hard to the left, spins the jet 180 degrees and flies past the Ptera again...and again causing it to spin around every which way.

Tails once again spins the X-Hurricane 180 degrees and this time flies straight at the Egg-Ptera. "Time for you to crash!" He yells before pulling back just enough to make the X-Hurricane scrape its underside against the Egg-Ptera's head.

The sudden blow to the head, combined with its screwed gryoscopes meant that the Egg-Ptera took off in one direction...straight down. The massive flying robot crashes onto the front half of the flight deck and is reduced to nothing more than a smoldering wreck...the explosion it caused either destroying or crippling all of the Egg-Spider swarm on the flight deck.

"Yea!" Tails yells as he shuts off the afterburners and lowers the throttle, "How do you like that?!"

Charmy meanwhile, was practically embedded into his seat, panting hard as he clutched his chest. "Geez Tails! A little warning before you decide to go crazy like that!" He yells.

"Seriously! Did you forget about the two of us?" Espio asks, his voice carrying over a hint of anger.

"Phew...I think my heart stopped for a few seconds..." Vector wheezes, a look of terror frozen onto his face.

Tails merely laughed nervously and replied with a weak, "Sorry..."

* * *

Sonic, Silver, Blaze, and Amy were handling their Terra's pretty easily, thanks mostly to the confined space of the hallway, but the robots were proving as persistent as the ones Dusk and her group had to deal with.

Despite Spin Dashing into it, using Homing Attacks, Psychic Shockwaves, and even good old-fashioned punches and kicks, the Terra that Sonic and Silver were fighting refused to accept damage. Not even Silver telekinetically slamming the robot into the wall yielded damage.

"Silver this isn't working...we need to give this thing one good, hard hit..." Sonic says.

"Do you have some idea for accomplishing that? Because I don't."

"How does a psychically-boosted Spin Dash sound?"

Silver glances at Sonic, smirks, and readies his telekinesis. Sonic quickly curls into a ball and begins spinning at super-high speeds. Silver focuses his psychic power onto his blue counterpart and swings his arm forward with a yell.

Once Sonic felt himself fly forward, he added his own energy to the mix and hit the Terra so hard that he managed to crack apart the chest armor and knock the massive robot off-balance. The force also caused the blue hedgehog to bounce backwards, over Silver's head. Deciding to build off of what Sonic caused, Silver quickly fired a focused, psychic blast right at the damaged armor.

The psychic bolt hit the damaged armor right in the center and blew it apart, sending jet-black armor fragments in every direction. Thinking quickly, Silver grabbed all of the fragments with his psychic powers then sent all of them back at the Raptor, right into the hole that was made when the armor was cast away in the first place.

All of those fragments cut up the insides of the robot and cause enough damage to disable it. Just to make sure though, Silver threw several more Psychic Bolts into the machine, causing several explosions that leave the Terra truly destroyed.

Amy and Blaze were keeping the last Terra occupied and had managed to do a surprising amount of damage to the robot. Its gatling gun was ruined, nearly all of its claws were smashed, and some of the spikes were melted out of shape because of Blaze's fire. However, like with all of its brethren, this Terra needed a powerful hit to bring it down.

Luckily for the ladies, Sonic came flying in and hit an damaged part of the armor breaking it away and splashing oil onto Amy's hammer. The pink hedgehog took a look at the black liquid all over her hammer's head, then quickly turned to Blaze.

"Blaze! Throw a fireball at my hammer!" She yells.

Blaze smirks and does so, setting the hammer alight with fire. Amy tightened her grip on the new fire-hammer, ran at the Terra, jumped into the air, and brought the flaming hammer onto the robot's head. The intense heat from the oil fire combined with the sheer force of the slam both crushed the head armor and telescoped the robot's neck.

Blaze, deciding to finish what Amy started, quickly jumped over the pink hedgehog, surrounded herself in flames, and dove straight at the robot, the sharp points of her high-heels poised to strike the dangerous machine.

Flaming-hot kick met damaged metal and pretty much shattered the robot's head, forcing the machine to collapse. That was one more Terra Egg-Raptor down.

Sonic whistles a little at the ladies' work, "Way to go girls."

Amy giggles a little, "Thanks Sonic, but we couldn't have done it without you splashing oil on my hammer...how do I put it out?"

"I've got it." Silver says before forming a psychic shield around the fire. Once all of the air was burned up, the fire put itself out and Amy allowed her hammer to disappear.

"Come on guys, lets get going before more of those things can find us." Blaze says, leading the others back to their old course.

* * *

Dusk was able to lead her group the rest of the way to the vault without coming across any other robots. The four ran into the vault, after Shadow blew the doors apart with a Chaos Blast, and up to the emerald stand, where seven Emeralds were sitting.

Like she did before when changing sides, Dusk formed a tentacle out of the case's shadow and shattered the glass. Knuckles and Rouge quickly gathered the emeralds into their arms and the four began hurrying back towards the door.

The alarm was blaring and red lights were flashing, but they focused on just getting out of there and finding the Master Emerald. Unfortunately, it seemed as though Eggman had anticipated the attack, and installed a new feature into the security system...a rapidly closing blast door that was threatening to seal them in.

Despite running as quickly as they could, the blast door was closing too fast. Realizing this, Dusk quickly formed a shadow tentacle from her shadow and slammed Knuckles and Rouge with it, tossing the two out of the room before the door could shut.

"Hurry!" Rouge yelled to them.

"Forget us!" Dusk yelled, "Go after the Master Emerald! The first hallway on your left should lead you to where Eggman has it!"

The blast door slams shut, sealing Dusk and Shadow into the vault. Even though they hated the thought of leaving their friends behind, Rouge and Knuckles still headed off for the Master Emerald...those two hedgehogs would find someway of getting out.

Inside the vault, Shadow was examining the door for any weak points, but came up with nothing. "I'm guessing that not even a Chaos Blast would open this thing..." he says aloud while looking at the massive steel door, "Is it possible to Chaos Control out of here?"

Dusk shakes her head, "No...Eggman told me that these walls are designed to block Chaos Energy...the only way out was through that doorway."

_Mwa-ha-ha-ha!_Eggman's laughter began ringing through the vault, _I may not have been able to capture Knuckles and Rouge, but look at what I did catch! The Ultimate Life Form and a traitor!_

"Eggman! Open this door now!" Shadow demands.

_Now why would I do that and spoil my robot's fun? Behold you two...the robot that helped me break into Blaze's palace and the Prison Island fortress!_

A loud whirring noise is heard as an elevator brings up a colossal robot...like an Egg-Raptor that was ten times the normal size. It stood more upright than the Egg-Raptors, had that jet-black armor all over its back, head, outer legs and arms, and tail, crimson-red armor on its underside and inner legs and arms. At the tip of its snout was a long, golden horn, its claws were the same shade of gold, and its tail-tip had four gatling guns arranged on a single rotating wheel...essentially a gatling gun composed of smaller gatling guns.

With a loud roar the massive robot stomped off the elevator, which descended back to the armory and the elevator shaft was sealed with another blast door.

_Egg Tyranno...get them!_

**

* * *

**

Phew...lots of stuff happening in this chapter. I hope the next one will be able to follow something like this one and not be a disappointment. By the way, 'Tyranno' is pronounced TY-ran-oh...you know, like Tyrannosaurus Rex.


	28. The Final Battle Part 3: Ending it All

Chapter 28 The Final Battle Part 3: Ending it All

Dusk and Shadow backed up to the blast door, watching the massive Egg Tyranno slowly march towards them. The two hedgehogs definitely had the robot beat in the speed category, but if that thing was able to break into Prison Island, its firepower was probably second only to the Egg-Battleship itself.

The Tyranno let out a roar and lunged forward, aiming to take a bite out of its opponents. Dusk and Shadow easily dodged by leaping away, causing the robot to slam its head into the blast door. All that happened to both was a couple scratches.

Shadow skidded a little from his dodge, but quickly used his skates to speed toward the robot. He Spin Dashed into its leg, but merely bounced off the hardened black armor.

Dusk tried stabbing the other leg with a shadow spear, but the shadow broke in half like a toothpick and reverted to normal.

The Tyranno roared again and attempted to stomp on the purple hedgehog, but again her speed saved her. The robot learned that physical attacks wouldn't do much, so it began firing all of its gatling guns towards the purple hedgehog.

Dusk quickly began skating along the perimeter of the vault when she saw the tail aim for her, and had to keep her speed at the absolute max to avoid getting shot full of holes. Shadow was busy attacking one of the legs, but his attention was drawn away from the column-like appendage when he heard the gatling guns going off.

It only took a second for him to react after noticing that the bullets were going after the purple hedgehog, and after yelling "Chaos Control!" Shadow slowed down time. He ran as fast as he could towards Dusk, hooked an arm around her waist, and quickly jerked her towards safety.

Dusk wasn't aware of the slowing of time, so when she felt her body get yanked off to the side of the approaching bullets she screamed a little. "Easy Dusk...its just me." Shadow said as time resumed normal speed and he reappeared.

"Oh...thanks Shadow..." Dusk replied, blushing a little from embarrassment and that Shadow's arm was around her waist.

Shadow slowed to a stop underneath the Egg Tyranno and released his grip around Dusk's waist. "You okay?"

"Yea...yea I'm fine...not one of those bullets managed to hit me."

Their safety was soon compromised as the Tyranno roared and brought a foot up, hoping to stomp on the two hedgehogs. Shadow quickly re-hooked his arm around Dusk's waist and sped off, dragging her along.

Again he slowed to a stop, this time in front of the blast door, and let go of Dusk. "Thanks again, but you don't have to keep grabbing around my waist."

"I couldn't afford to be picky...I just had to get you away from the danger." Shadow replied.

Again their conversation is cut off by an attack from the Tyranno...this time several chest plates popped open and out came roughly twenty missiles.

"Shadow! RUN!" Dusk yelled before taking off, Shadow right on her heels.

Like with the Egg-Raptor's missiles, these were heat-seekers...and very smart ones at that. Several times the hedgehog pair tried to get the missiles to hit the Tyranno's legs or underside, but the missiles rolled out of the way of the obstructions and continued after them.

After a two minute chase, Shadow grew tired of the missiles and threw several Chaos Spears towards them, destroying all but one. That one missile was able to survive the flurry of Chaos Spears and the explosions of its buddies, and continued to approach the duo.

Dusk glanced over her shoulder at the approaching missile, saw how close it was, and took control of her shadow. She pulled a tentacle out of it and slammed Shadow in the side with a swing, throwing him away from the missile.

He was hit hard enough to go spinning head-over heels as he flew away from Dusk and the missle, and the scene that unfolded in front of his eyes seemed to go in slow-motion, despite him not using Chaos Control.

Shadow saw the tip of the missile press against the small of Dusk's back then explode, sending the purple hedgehog hurtling away with a scream of pain. She slammed into the vault wall hard enough to dent it, then fell about ten feet, slammed into the ground and bounced to a rest roughly two feet from the wall.

Shadow gasped and used his skates to bounce off the wall he was going towards and land beside the wounded girl. "Dusk!" He exclaimed as he slipped his hands under her back and head. "Dusk!"

His reply was little more than a strained groan of pain.

Shadow looked down at Dusk with a look of disbelief on his face...this couldn't be happening, she couldn't have been this hurt. This was the girl that was able to match him in a fight and hold back a tackle of his with ease. This was the girl that had obliterated a several hundred strong crowd of robots easily. She couldn't go down from something like that.

Shadow shut his eyes as a lone tear slipped out. He let go of Dusk and slowly stood up as his fists clenched tight. He was so mad right now at the Egg-Tyranno for doing this...it felt almost identical to the anger he had when Maria was shot.

The umber hedgehog turned to the larger Egg-Tyranno, that was currently turning around to observe the damage it had done, and felt his Chaos Energies beginning to surge through him...almost like the limiters weren't even there.

"You monster...You're going to pay dearly for hurting her!" He yelled as a redish aura appeared around his body. In an instant he curled into a ball and flew straight at the Tyranno, ramming into it with such force that the several-ton machine was slammed into the wall as though it was made of cardboard.

Shadow bounced off of the robot and clung to the wall nearby. The Tryanno roared and began charging its mouth-laser...big mistake. Shadow quickly curled into another ball and shot straight into its mouth, connecting with the laser cannon so hard that it was utterly destroyed.

That didn't stop Shadow...in fact, it hardly slowed him down. Shadow continued plowing through the back of the Tyranno's skull until he exploded out the back of it...then quickly turned and plowed straight into its gatling guns, destroying those with another explosion. Shadow turned around again and drilled a neat little hole clear through the hip area, exiting the robot on the opposite side that he connected with.

Shadow continued to plow through the Tyranno easier than a hot knife would go through butter for the next minute before he finally decided to end this battle once and for all. Still as a ball, Shadow shot straight up the robot's back (on the outside) and launched himself into the air, then spun around and plowed right into its skull...right between the eyes.

After burrowing a ways, Shadow charged up as much energy as he could before yelling "Chaos...BLAST!"

The Tyranno's head exploded like a balloon that touched a needle. What's more is that all of that Chaos Energy shot through the Tyranno's power systems, overloading it and causing the rest of the robot to explode.

The umber hedgehog landed in the middle of the ruined remains of the Egg Tyranno, finding three Chaos Emeralds that were glittering like nothing had happened at all. He only took enough time to grab the three jewels before skating back towards Dusk...finding that she hadn't gotten any better.

"Dusk...come on you have to get up...you can't let something like that take you down...you're way too strong for that." he whispers, kneeling beside his wounded friend.

Again, a strained groan is his answer.

The Chaos Emeralds clinked to floor, falling from Shadow's numb hands. "Please Dusk...don't leave me." he whispered, his ears leaning backwards. _I've got to do something! Can I heal with Chaos Energy? I've never tried before, but..._

Shadow closed his eyes and allowed his Chaos Energy to begin flowing again. Reacting to this, the three Emeralds on the ground began to levitate around him and the one in his quills drifted out to join its brothers.

Slowly the umber hedgehog reached out and closed a hand around one of Dusk's. "Chaos...Heal!" Shadow said, hoping to maybe trigger some new power. At first it seemed like nothing was happening, but then Dusk's body began to glow. Slowly her glow began to get brighter and brighter, and then all of a sudden...it disappeared.

Shadow looked on with disbelief as the Chaos Emeralds collapsed to the floor. It didn't work.

He shut his eyes and slammed his free hand into the ground as a fist. He had never felt so useless before in his life! He had failed...he had failed to protect the first girl to capture his heart, after Maria.

"This can't be happening...this can't happen! I..." Shadow's sentence suddenly ends...

...Dusk's hand had closed around his.

With a gasp he quickly turned back to look at the purple hedgehog, just as her eyes flickered open. She took a couple deep breaths before sitting up. "I'm going to feel that in the morning..." she mumbled, a second before Shadow closed his arms around her in a tight hug.

"Thank heavens! I thought I was going to lose you!" He exclaimed, holding her close.

"Thank yourself...if it wasn't for that jolt of Chaos Energy you sent through me, I probably wouldn't have made it." Dusk replied, closing her arms around Shadow, deeply enjoying his affection.

The two held one another for a couple more seconds before letting go. Shadow stood up first, then helped Dusk to her feet. "You okay?" he asks, concerned that there might've been a couple things he wasn't able to heal.

"Apart from being a little sore, I'm pretty sure I'm fit as a fiddle."

"That's good, now come on..." Shadow said before collecting the Chaos Emeralds, "We'd better head back for the flight deck, Knuckles and Rouge have probably already gotten the Master Emerald by now."

Dusk nods and follows Shadow through a large hole in the blast door (created when the tail of the Egg Tyranno was blown away) and back towards the flight deck.

* * *

Sonic's group had finally managed to come to Eggman's control room. Sure there was a Terra-Egg Raptor on guard duty outside, but it proved no match for the combined strength of four Mobians.

Courtesy of Amy Rose, the doors were bashed down, and the four heroes charged in and cornered Eggman, Decoe, Bocoe, and Bokkun in the room.

"We've finally caught you Eggman!" Sonic exclaims as the genius spins around in his chair.

"Grr...Yes but what do you plan to do? We're thousands of feet in the air, far from anyplace that could arrest me."

"Simple." Blaze states, walking towards the genius. "You're going to land this thing then turn yourself in."

"And what would make you think we'd do that?" Bokkun asks, floating above Eggman's head.

Blaze leers at the little imp and forms a fireball in her hand, getting Bokkun to cower behind Eggman.

"So...are you going to land this thing peacefully? Or do we have to make you land?" Amy asks, brandishing her hammer in a threatening way.

Eggman grunts and backs up a little, but stumbles on Bokkun and falls backwards...causing his elbow to press one of the buttons on the console.

"_Now beginning Egg Dragon activation sequence."_ says a computerized voice.

"NO!" Eggman yells, spinning around and pressing all manner of buttons in hopes of stopping the computer.

"_Manual override ignored...continuing activation sequence."_

"Blast it you stupid computer. I said abort!" Eggman yelled, still frantically slamming buttons.

"_Manual override ignored...continuing activation sequence."_

Suddenly the entire Battleship began to violently shake around, like a Magnitude 10 earthquake in the sky.

"Wh-what's going on?!" Sonic asked.

"The Egg Dragon has awoken..." Eggman replied, his tone suggesting that it was the end of the world.

"What's so bad about that?" Silver asked.

"The Egg Dragon has a temper that makes the Biolizard look like a sleeping infant. Its control matrix refuses to work properly, it obeys no-one but itself, its firepower puts the Egg-Battleship's to shame, and its armor is second to none." Eggman replies.

Hearing that told Sonic and the others that they had to get back to the flight deck and fast. Eggman would have to wait for next time. As fast as they could go, the heroes sped out of the control room, making a beeline for the stairs.

A couple minutes after they left, Eggman rose and slowly lead his assistants to their escape pod...but inside he doubted that even that would save them from the Egg Dragon.

* * *

Out on the flight deck, the X-Hurricane managed to touch down just as the eight other Mobians burst out of the super structure, all of them gathering together in a group.

"What's going on?" Rouge asked.

Her answer came not from any of her friends, but instead from a massive laser blast that tore clean through the front section of the Egg-Battleship. Following the lasr blast came an explosion that blew apart the front sixth of the Egg Battleship...revealing the terror that was the Egg-Dragon.

The robot was at least the size of the Biolizard...maybe even bigger. Its armor was the same rusty orange color as the Biolizard, but its underside was a steel gray. The Egg-Dragon stood on four huge, stocky legs, had a neck that must've been fifty feet long, and a sixty foot long tail with both golden spikes sticking out and plenty of gatling guns that could swivel in virtually every direction.

It had two giant wings, each one having the same surface area as three football fields, and they were bat-like in design. Its head was massive, having a huge mouth, which was most likely where the laser came from, giant red eyes and a frill of horns where head met neck. Straight down where the spine would be was a row of sharp horns that went from the top of its neck to a third of the way down its tail.

The enormous robot let out a loud, deep roar and took flight aided by several flight engines on its underside. Once airborne the Egg-Dragon headed towards the nearest town...Station Square.

"How can we possibly destroy something like that?" Amy asked, her hands clasped together and resting underneath her chin.

"The same way we destroy every other super thing Eggman built...with the Emeralds." Sonic replies.

Sonic, Shadow, and Silver all walked towards one another and the four Chaos Emeralds Shadow held began to spin around them. Tails released the emerald from inside the X-Hurricane to join the others and the two that Rouge was holding onto floated away from the bat and towards the hedgehogs.

Once all seven emeralds gathered together, they begin to spin around the hedgehogs in a blur of color. Then, in a flash of pure white light, they entered their super forms. Sonic's quills pointed upward as his fur turned a brillant gold and his green eyes turned crimson red. Shadow's black fur turned a deep platinum color, and Silver's fur obtained a golden hue.

All three hedgehogs nodded at one another before taking flight after the Egg Dragon.

Blaze wasn't far behind them, after allowing the seven Sol Emeralds to fly around her...another light flash happened as Blaze became Burning Blaze. Her lavender fur turned a shade of pink, her purple robes turned a shade of red, and flames sprouted out of her wrists and ankles.

"Tails, get everyone out of here. We'll take care of the Egg-Dragon." She says before taking flight after the guys.

Tails nods to her retreating figure before turning to the remaining Mobians. "Alright guys...climb in." he says.

"Tails, there isn't enough room. We shouldn't risk wing-riding with the Egg-Dragon out there." Dusk says. "I can take someone to the escape pods."

"That someone is me." Amy states in a tone saying that her mind was made up.

"Alright you two, good luck. Aim for that hill over there when you launch the pod alright?" Tails says. The sisters nod.

Vector and Espio climb into the middle cockpit while Knuckles loads the Master Emerald into the cargo hold, under the rear cockpit, before he and Rouge take the last two seats. Amy and Dusk hurry back into the Egg-Battleship as the X-Hurricane takes off.

Dusk led Amy through the winding passageways of the Egg-Battleship. They had to hurry, the ship was beginning to crash...having no-one at the wheel and a destroyed front end would do that.

What didn't help is that, occasionally, a stray attack from the Egg-Dragon would hit the Battleship...either causing the airship to shake around and trip up the sisters, or damaging the hallways that they were running through.

Every now and then, as they passed by a window that gave them a view of the battle with the Egg-Dragon...Dusk would take a look and see that the Dragon seemed unfazed and undamaged by the attack of her super-powered friends.

There had to be someway she could help...there had to be...but almost all of the weaponry that the Battleship had was destroyed by her friends in their attack. As she and her sister approached the escape pod bay, Dusk came to a grim conclusion...the only weapon left in the Battleship's arsenal was its sheer mass.

Amy hurried over to the nearest escape pod, Dusk followed but at a slightly slower speed. The purple hedgehog opened the pod and set its landing point to be the hill that Tails mentioned. After punching in the commands...Dusk seemed to freeze.

Amy noticed this as she was starting to enter the pod. "Dusk! Come on! We have to get out of here!"

After a couple seconds of pause, Dusk replied with, "I can't go."

"What're you talking about?! You have to come with!"

"Amy, I've seen the battle our friends are having with the Egg-Dragon...they aren't doing anything to it. I know how to help, but to do that I have to stay behind. Leave without me."

"No way sis."

"Amy that wasn't a suggestion that was an order...go without me!"

"No."

Dusk sighed, "Sorry Amy, but you leave me no choice." Suddenly a shadow-tentacle grew out of Amy's shadow and pushed the pink hedgehog into the pod.

Before she had a chance to get out, Dusk closed the pod door then walked over to the window to see Amy ramming her shoulder into the door.

"Dusk! Open this door!" She shouted.

"I'm sorry Amy...I can't do that." Dusk pauses before continuing with, "I'll never forget you." Dusk formed another tentacle and pressed the launch button.

"Dusk!" Amy yelled as her pod flew away...leaving her beloved sister behind.

Dusk watched the pod fall away as tears gathered in her eyes. "I'm sorry sis...but I have to do this." she whispered before leaving the escape pod bay...heading for the control room.

Even with all of the shaking, Dusk still managed to get to the control room in ten minutes and took Eggman's seat. She could hear electrical sparks from inside some of the computer terminals, no doubt a result of the Egg-Dragon freeing itself. She knew that this had to be done to save everyone else, but Dusk still sniffled a little at the thought of having to leave her sister and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Amy...Shadow...everyone...I'm sorry." she whispered while grabbing the controls for steering and speed. _Alright...its time to destroy that monster that Eggman built._ She thought while giving several commands to the computer system.

The vertical takeoff jets sputtered a little, then roared into life and lifted the Battleship into the air, higher than the battle against the Egg-Dragon.

"Ready or not Egg Dragon...here I come!" she yells while jamming the throttle to max, flying the Battleship towards the fight.

* * *

Super Sonic, Super Shadow, Super Silver, and Burning Blaze definitely had their hands full with the Egg-Dragon...just like Eggman had said...the robot's armor was proving tough for them to bust open. They were actually burning up most of their energy just trying to keep from being hit.

Just when the four heroes were about to launch their next attack on the Egg-Dragon...they heard Dusk's voice yell, "Outta my way! I'm coming through!"

They turned and (by instinct) quickly sped away from the rapidly approaching Egg-Battleship. The Egg-Dragon wasn't so fast and was rammed by the Battleship...and being pushed down towards the ground.

Dusk was jostled around a lot when the ship rammed into the Egg-Dragon, but she kept the throttle held at max and the course dead-set for the large clearing below. There was only way to destroy the Egg-Dragon...smash into the ground and slam the Battleship down on top of it.

She glanced over to her left and saw Super Sonic and Burning Blaze flying alongside the control room.

"Dusk!" Sonic yelled, "What're you doing?!"

"I'm taking down the Egg-Dragon!" Dusk yelled back, her voice reaching the heroes through the Battleship's intercom system.

"Are you crazy?!" Blaze asks, "You'll get yourself killed!"

Bocoe's terminal explodes and catches the room on fire. "I know that, but its the only way to destroy that thing!"

"But..." came Silver's voice.

"Forget about me!" Dusk yelled to them, "Go make sure the others are protected from the Dragon's stray shots!"

Despite wanting to stay with Dusk, they all knew she was right...this was the only way. Reluctantly, Super Sonic, Super Silver, and Burning Blaze flew towards the X-Hurricane and Amy's pod...but Super Shadow stayed behind.

"Dusk..."

"Go Shadow! Protect the others!"

He hung around for a few more seconds before slamming his eyes shut and forcing himself to fly after the others.

Dusk turned back to look out the front windows and saw that Egg-Dragon was still pinned under the Egg-Battleship and the ground was barely six hundred feet away.

"Here we go..." she said as Decoe's terminal exploded and added to the raging fires in the room. The smoke was beginning to choke her up and sting her eyes, but Dusk forced herself to keep from submitting...she was hell-bent on crashing this Battleship onto the Egg-Dragon and nothing was going to stop her.

A few seconds pass before the Dragon is rammed into the ground, the impact being so strong that Dusk was thrown backwards into Eggman's chair and off the controls...and there was no way she could get away. The smoke was beginning to choke her up even worse and her muscles were weak. The flames intensified as more and more of the Battleship's circuitry failed and exploded and the front end of the ship was beginning to crack apart and explode as it was forced into the ground and the Egg-Dragon by its own engines that were stuck at max thrust.

_So this is how I'm going out huh?_ Dusk thought as her vision grew blurry, _At least no-one will be able to say I wasn't a hero in the end..._

Her eyes shut and Dusk could feel more and more of the Battleship getting crushed into the ground.

Just when she thought it was all over...Dusk felt two hands grab her shoulders and pull her out of the seat. The for of the tug caused Dusk to stagger forward, and her cheek came to rest in a patch of warm, soft fur as two equally warm arms went around her back and held her tight. Then came a familiar voice that yelled, "Chaos...Control!"

* * *

Over on the hill, the X-Hurricane managed to land and all of its passengers got out as Amy's pod landed. The pink hedgehog busted the door down with her hammer and leapt out, frantically looking around for a second pod.

"Amy!" Rouge yelled as she hurried over to the pink hedgehog, "What's going on? Where's your sister?"

"She didn't come with me!" Amy replied, shocking everyone, "Dusk refused to go and pushed me into the pod...she didn't escape!"

"What?!" Vector yelled.

Slowly Super Sonic, Super Silver, and Burning Blaze descended into the crowd. Their energy finally ran out as each one separated from their emeralds and collapsed onto the ground. Rouge hurried over to Blaze, Knuckles over to Silver, and Amy to Sonic.

"Sonic...Sonic! You've got to tell me what happened to my sister!" Amy exclaimed while supporting the blue hedgehog as he sat up.

Sonic said nothing, but looked towards the crashing Battleship...as did Silver and Blaze. Two seconds after they turned to look at it...the Battleship exploded into an enormous fireball, throwing oddly beautiful reds, oranges, and yellows into the dusk-time sky.

"No..." Amy whispered as she took a step towards the explosion, "No...Dusk can't...She can't be gone!"

"Amy..." Tails whispered as he set a hand down on her shoulder. The fox didn't say anymore, Amy had slapped his hand away...making it clear that she wanted to be left alone.

The pink hedgehog sunk down to her knees, tears forming and falling from her eyes like a rainstorm. Dusk couldn't be dead...she had to be alive...she had to have found some way off of the Battleship before it crashed. "Dusk...why?" Amy said aloud, not caring whether the others heard her or not, "Why did this have to be the only way? Why couldn't there have been some other way that didn't require me to lose my sister?!"

Amy's tears began to fall even faster, and she did nothing to hold them back. The rest of her friends didn't say anything, all they did was silently watch the fading explosion and their weeping friend in quiet respect.

After maybe twenty seconds of this quiet mourning, a sudden light flash from behind the group caught their attention and they turned to see Super Shadow floating there. His back was to them, but it looked as though he has holding something in his arms.

Shadow didn't remain floating for long, that Chaos Control burned up the remainder of his super-form's energy and he reverted to normal then fell to the ground. Everyone was surprised when Shadow landed, not because he fell out of the sky, but because they saw him holding Dusk in his arms.

Shadow landed on his back and Dusk on top of him...her cheek still resting in his chest tuft and his arms still tightly gripping the purple hedgehog. Dusk let out a couple coughs and moved her head to look at Shadow, who had lifted his head to look at her.

"Sh-Shadow?" She asks before coughing a little more, "You...you came back? Just to save me?"

"Hey...you're worth saving. I know everyone else wouldn't want you to die...and neither did I." Shadow replies, giving Dusk a warm smile...a look that most would have doubted Shadow could ever do.

"Dusk?" Amy's voice asked, getting the umber and purple hedgehogs to look at their crowd of friends, "You're...you're alive?"

Dusk gently pulled herself out of Shadow's embrace, stood up, and looked at her sister. "Just as alive as you are."

Amy's tears began to fall again as the pink hedgehog ran forward and caught her sis in a large hug, which was promptly returned. Amy sighed as she nestled her head against Dusk's shoulder, "Dusk...don't you ever scare me like that again. I can't stand the thought of losing you...I..."

"Shh...its going to be alright now Amy." Dusk whispered to her sis, gently running a hand down Amy's back.

The rest of the crowd began to gather around Dusk and congratulated her for destroying the Egg-Dragon. Shadow had managed to get back on his feet and was watching this tender moment a few feet away.

"So...the Ultimate Life-Form has a heart after all." says a voice to Shadow's right. The umber hedgehog looks over and sees Sonic weakly walking towards him.

"Your point?"

"I'm just a little surprised that you'd actually use up the last of your super-form energy to save someone...and the girl that had beaten you consistently no less."

Shadow turns away from the blue hedgehog and looks at the group, or more specifically Dusk. "I couldn't let Amy lose her sister...I don't care how odd it was for me to do that, Amy shouldn't have to lose her family."

"Any other reasons?"

Shadow glances at his rival, "What're you getting at?"

"Come on Shadow, I saw how tightly you were holding Dusk when the two of you reappeared...there has to be something going on between the two of you."

Before Shadow could say anything back to Sonic, the crowd heard something that sounded like a muffled roar. Dusk pushed her way out of the crowd and walked up to the edge of the hill, staring towards the wreckage of the Egg-Battleship.

"No...it can't be possible..." she whispered, dumb-struck by the sight that befell her eyes.

**

* * *

**

Holy...I don't even know where ninety percent of this chapter came from...I just sat down at my computer and this came out. Guess I didn't have to worry about this chapter not being able to follow something like the last one!


	29. The Final Battle Part 4: Dusk Falls

**And here it is...the official ending of 'Dusk Sets'. There still is the epilogue to write, but the main story ends with this chapter. Before you go and start reading it, first I would just like to say thanks. A big thanks to three certain writers; DarkspineSilver92, SlashBandicoot43, and The Brawler...those three have become regular reviewers and fans, and I'm thanking the three of you for supporting this story from your first review. I may not have replied to your reviews, but all of them encouraged me to keep writing and all were greatly appreciated. I hope this is an ending that will satisfy the bunch of you. A similar thanks goes to two others, Farming Chick and Beta-ReaderADV, who have also been regular reviewers.**

**Another thanks goes out to everyone who enjoyed this story enough to read it all the way to here or who have left reviews. I do appreciate you taking the time to read this and leaving your thoughts behind in a review, it brings a smile to this author's face knowing that all of my hard work is enjoyed.**

**One last thing...parts of this chapter will probably choke up your emotions, so if you're an emotional person it would probably be wise to have a few tissues nearby.**

**Alright...I'm done...go ahead and enjoy the ending for 'Dusk Sets'.**

* * *

Chapter 29 The Final Battle Part 4: Dusk Falls

Out of the smoldering wreckage of the Egg-Battleship burst a terrifying sight...the Egg-Dragon. Dusk's near-sacrificial attempt didn't destroy it...but then again, the Egg-Dragon wasn't exactly brand-new either.

Its wings were completely destroyed, as was the rear third of its tail. All across its body, legs, and neck were patches where its armor was blown away, revealing the structure, servos, cables, and everything else that kept the insane robot functioning...but the most frightening part was its head. The left half of the armor was gone, and thus the inside were revealed, but the right half was still there...giving the Egg-Dragon a creepy, skeletal look.

It could no longer fly, but the robot still continued towards Station Square on foot.

Dusk, Sonic, and everyone else couldn't believe what they saw...they've lost. The Egg-Dragon was still working. True, it was barely working, but if Super Sonic, Super Shadow, Super Silver, and Burning Blaze couldn't damage that thing and crashing it into the ground underneath the Battleship only almost finished it off.

"No way..." Sonic said, his voice weak from lack of energy, "I have to keep fighting."

The blue hedgehog takes a couple weak steps towards the Egg-Dragon, but suddenly collapses to his knees...he just didn't have any energy left.

"Sonic, don't strain yourself." Amy scolded as she hurried over to him. "You can't keep fighting...you're too weak and need rest."

"I don't have a choice Amy..." Sonic stubbornly replies.

Slowly the group gets into an argument about how they should finish the Egg-Dragon off...but Dusk was the only silent one. She was still standing on the edge of the hill, watching the robot's retreating form...disbelief holding her still.

That should've worked...dropping the massive Egg-Battleship onto it should've destroyed anything...but that horrible robot refused to die. This wasn't Sonic's fight, or Shadow's, or anyone else's...she had to finish the Egg Dragon off herself...that thing stood as all of the evil the Eggman created and she had to destroy it, at any cost...but her powers were too weak on their own to do anything.

Then, a sudden ball of sky-blue light appeared in front of her eyes. The ball danced around a little before flying into her hand, then it began to grow and change shape. For about ten seconds it continued to grow until it stopped and its glow faded away...leaving the light-blue Sol Emerald in her left hand.

Instantly something that Blaze told her at the beginning of the attack began to echo in her mind...

_...Sol Emeralds enhance the holder's abilities..._

With this Emerald's help, Dusk's powers could get strong enough to destroy the Egg-Dragon...but it was going to be even more risky than before.

Dusk turned to look over her shoulder at her friends...her real friends, who joked and laughed with her and enjoyed her for who she was instead of what she could do. Then her eyes focused onto Amy, her sister and the person whose DNA created her in the first place.

Amy did get on Dusk's nerves every now and then, as all siblings do, but Dusk still wouldn't have wanted anyone else as a sister. Amy was probably the sweetest person in the whole world, her heart was always filled with good intentions, and all she wanted out of life was to spend time with Sonic...Dusk felt so much guilt for having to put her through so much.

The purple hedgehog closed her eyes and turned back towards the Egg-Dragon...this had to be done by her alone, none of the others should do this.

"Amy..." Dusk says in a loud enough voice for all of her friends to turn to her. "Shadow...everyone...I'm never going to forget you, and don't ever forget about me."

Immediately Amy's heart shattered, "Dusk...no. Please don't."

"I'm sorry sis." Is all Dusk said before skating after the Egg-Dragon.

Amy forced her way through the crowd and over to the edge of the hill. She would've given chase after Dusk, but her pair of skates was damaged when the pod collided with the ground, so all Amy could do was watch the purple light streak fade away and let her heart fall into a pit of misery. It began to flow through her body as Amy sunk down to her knees and began to cry. "Dusk..." is all she was able to whisper.

* * *

Dusk sped after the monster that Eggman created as fast as she could go. She had to...if she slowed down at all, her guilt would force her to go back to the others. Interestingly, Dusk could feel that whirlpool of rage, anger, and sadness in her heart that usually came before a power surge...but she didn't feel the power surge coming on. Maybe it only came because she was afraid of losing everyone that was dear to her and being alone again.

As she chased after the robot, those memories of before she and Amy became sisters came back. Dusk remembered how bored she was at first with no-one to be friends with, then she remembered how miserable it was. No-one to play with, no-one to laugh with, no-one to talk with, no-one to console her when she was sad...it really was miserable.

Now she thought about everyone that was in her life now...the ever-happy Sonic, good-hearted Tails and Amy, hot-headed Knuckles, and...of course...the hedgehog that seemed to always be there when she needed someone, Shadow.

Her tears began to fall as she remembered the umber hedgehog's kinder gestures...leaving behind that white rose when she was in the hospital, giving her that crystal, training with her, calming her after she lost control, protecting her from the Egg-Tyranno...and her most fond memory, looking out at all of the stars from the observation deck of the ARK, Shadow holding her around the waist and planting a small kiss behind her left ear.

She continued to force herself to follow the Egg-Dragon, but her tears sped up when the ARK memory returned to her. Dusk recalled how comfortable and peaceful things seemed when he had his hand in hers and his arm around her waist...how nice it was when he kissed her...it all choked her up, knowing that she was never going to see him again. "Shadow..." she said aloud, "...I'm so sorry about what happened to Maria, and how I'm going down the same path...and I'm sorry that I never got to say this, but...I love you Shadow...I love you more than any word or gift or expression could hope to describe...and I'm so sorry for having to do this...I don't want anything other than to be in your arms."

Dusk finally caught up with the Egg-Dragon, and used a shadow-ramp to launch herself onto its back. She began to dart around to all of the holes in its armor that she could safely reach and began jabbing shadow-tentacles into them, hoping to destroy the machinery inside.

...it didn't work. The robot's mechanics were too strong to be damaged by her shadows, even with the Sol Emerald's help.

With a heavy heart, Dusk knew there was only one way to destroy this horrible thing...the same way she destroyed that Terra Egg-Raptor back on the Battleship. Using all of the power her skates had left, Dusk hurled herself towards the Egg-Dragon's neck, and skated all the way up to its head.

In Station Square, the people had seen the explosion fo the Egg-Battleship and were celebrating that Eggman was beaten again, but they began to run away in panic when the Egg-Dragon reached the outskirts of the town.

With all of its other weapons destroyed, the Egg-Dragon roared before charging its mouth laser, aiming to vaporize part of this city in one move. It was never going to get that chance. Dusk squeezed the Sol Emerald in her left hand, causing its energies to begin powering her up. The purple hedgehog took control of her shadow and managed to create a shadow-tentacle long enough to wrap around the Egg-Dragon's snout and clamp its mouth shut.

The Dragon's laser cannon was now a bomb, and Dusk was standing right on top of it.

"Shadow...Amy...everyone else...there is no word that describes how sorry I am for leaving you all. I wish there was some other way, but there isn't..." she said aloud as the energy began to build up in the Dragon's head.

The people slowly stopped running away when they saw a large black thing shut the Dragon's mouth. News stations began launching helicopters to report what was going on, and as the choppers approached, their cameras zoomed in to see Dusk standing on the Dragon's snout, between its eyes, using her powers to hold its mouth shut. The images were broadcast directly to the news stations, who quickly put them on air.

Dusk could hear the energy begin to whine and she shut her eyes, "I love all of you guys as the great friends that you are..."

The people began to crowd around any TV set they could find, watching in awe as the purple hedgehog they all thought was an agent of Eggman's fighting to protect them.

"Amy, you were the best sister I could've gotten..." Dusk said as a bright light began to leak out between the Dragon's jaws.

Could they all have been wrong about Dusk? Maybe what she said to them those few days ago was true...maybe _they_ were being the evil ones by not giving her a chance. Maybe Dusk really did have a good heart, and they were just being blind and foolish.

"Shadow...I love you so much...I'm sorry..." Dusk said, two seconds before the Dragon's head exploded. With a bloodcurdling scream, Dusk was tossed away into the open grassy areas outside of Station Square, plummeting to the ground and landing with a sickening thud. The Egg-Dragon's body creaked, then groaned, then finally fell over...its systems were all fried from the energy build-up.

* * *

Back on the hill, everyone gasped as the Egg-Dragon's head exploded, knowing that that was were Dusk was. There was no celebrating that Eggman was beaten, or that the lives of thousands of people were safe...the grief of losing Dusk overshadowed all of that.

Shadow refused to accept that Dusk had sacrificed herself, and he managed to Chaos Control himself to the wreckage, despite having little energy left. Amy, also refusing to believe her sister was gone, began to run towards the wreckage, not caring whether anyone followed her or not.

One of her friends did, and he quickly caught up to Amy, scooped her into his arms, and ran towards the Egg-Dragon's remains...leaving a blue light streak behind.

* * *

Shadow reappears near the Dragon's remains and it only takes him a second to locate and hurry over to Dusk's side. "Dusk!" He says while kneeling beside her, actually scared that she wasn't moving.

He didn't even notice, but tears began to leave his eyes and fall to the ground...there Dusk was, the bravest girl in the world, giving her life up to save it...he knew she did the right thing, but it still wasn't fair. Why did this beautiful Rose that he loved have to wilt to save everyone? Why couldn't there have been another way?

"Dusk...I-I'm so sorry...I wanted to always be there for you, I wanted to always be able to protect you...but I completely failed you." He said as his tears began to fall faster out of his crimson-red eyes that were...for the first time...conveying misery and tenderness.

Shadow knelt there for a little while longer, silently crying his broken heart out, when all of sudden...he felt a hand take his own. The umber hedgehog quickly looked to see Dusk's right hand holding his right, and her eyes were half open.

"Hey there Shadow..." she says, her voice incredibly weak and shaky.

"Dusk! Dusk, please, don't go...don't leave us...don't leave me..."

"There's something...that I wanted to tell you..." She says through deep, labored breaths. "Shadow...I love you."

Shadow looked down at the purple hedgehog with disbelief before pulling her close and holding onto her tightly. "Dusk...I love you too. Please, don't go..."

"Be strong for me, alright? I want you to always protect Amy...you'll need to."

"Dusk!" Amy's voice yelled, getting Shadow to turn and release his love. In an instant, Amy was also kneeling beside Dusk, Sonic standing by the pink hedgehog's side.

"Dusk! Oh Dusk, don't you dare leave me." Amy says, fighting back her tears as best she could.

"Sorry sis...but I think this is the time where I don't recover."

"Dusk, don't say that. You will get better, I know you will...you have to get better, I can't lose you."

"Not this time."

Amy can't hold it back anymore and finally lets her tears spill out like small waterfalls, "Dusk don't go, I don't want to lose my sister...I can't lose my sister."

Dusk's dull-blue eyes shift from Amy to Sonic. "Sonic." she weakly says, getting his attention. "You treat my sister well okay?"

Sonic gives Dusk a weak smile and replies, "Sure thing Dusk, whatever you say." in a voice that lacked his usual confidence.

"Dusk...no...please don't leave." Amy whispers, setting her hand down onto the Sol Emerald that was still clutched in Dusk's hand.

Immediately a strange tingling sensation went up Amy's arm and crawled across her chest to stop at her heart. She suddenly felt really weak and collapsed on top of her sister, frightening Sonic and Shadow. They tried to touch either sister, but quickly recoiled from what could only be described as a painful static electricity jolt.

* * *

Amy opens her eyes to see that everything she saw before the tingling sensation was gone. She was standing on clear ground, surrounded by a bright white sky with patches of light blue drifting around like clouds. She seemed to be alone in this place, but soon saw Dusk lying nearby.

Before Amy could hurry to her sister, an owner-less voice drifted through her ears. "The power of a Sol Emerald is amplified by the heart of whoever touches it. With two pure hearts in contact, the power is grown to a level that can awaken one thought lost...do you wish to give up some of your own life energy to awaken the other?"

Amy immediately answered, "Yes." without hesitation or a second thought.

At first it seems like nothing was happening, and then Amy notices a soft pink, light-tendril growing out from her heart and going towards Dusk. Out of Dusk's heart was growing a deep-purple tendril, although this one was much shorter and fainter than Amy's.

It took only about ten seconds for the tip of Amy's tendril to touch Dusk's, but once it did, the purple tendril became solid and slowly followed the pink one until it consisted of roughly half the distance.

Amy could feel her energy being drained away, no doubt following the light into Dusk, but the weakness would be well worth it when Dusk came back. After maybe a half-minute, the weak feeling subsided and the tendrils faded...then Amy could feel a new sort of energy flowing into her body.

"Now the energy that you have given up to save the other and the remaining energy the other needs to come back has been replaced with Sol Energy." said the voice before a bright light flash forced Amy to shut her eyes.

* * *

When she opened them again, Amy was back with Sonic, Shadow, and Dusk at the outskirts of Station Square. She groaned a little from a sudden headache and sat upright. "Ugh...what..." Amy wasn't going to finish that sentence...Sonic's arms went around her and the blue hedgehog pulled Amy into a tight embrace.

"Amy...I'm so glad you're alright...I thought that maybe you were going to be lost along with Dusk!" He exclaimed while holding the pink hedgehog close. Amy sighed that her hero was hugging her, and soon returned it.

Shadow watched the blue and pink hedgehog hug one another with a tiny smile on his face, but his attention, and Sonic and Amy's, was soon drawn away by a coughing noise.

Dusk was coughing, then suddenly took a deep breath as her eyes shot open. She took a few more deep breaths before sitting upright and resting a hand to her head. "Oww..." she groaned, "That's going to hurt for days."

Suddenly Amy's arms shot around her purple sister, and the pink hedgehog was weeping from joy. "Dusk! You're back! I was worried that it didn't work!" Amy exclaimed through her tears.

Dusk began to cry a little as her arms went around Amy, "Amy...I'm sorry for putting you through all of that..."

"Don't apologize Dusk...I'm just glad that you're back." Amy replied.

"I hate to break up this tender moment." Sonic said, "But what were you worried about Amy?"

"I don't know how, but when I touched the Sol Emerald...somehow I brought Dusk back to life."

"We can figure out the details later, right now...I think its best if we get these two to a hospital, right Sonic?"

The blue hedgehog nods at his black counterpart before lifting Amy into his arms. He only hung around long enough for Shadow to lift Dusk into his arms before the two shot off towards Station Square Hospital.

They got there in under a minute and both of the Rose sisters were quickly taken away for examination. Both male hedgehogs decide on waiting around for the results, so they take two seats in the waiting room...or rather, Shadow takes a seat while Sonic uses a phone to call the others.

After a couple minutes of sitting by himself, Sonic takes a seat beside Shadow in the otherwise empty waiting room...it was past visiting hours and normal appointments, but the two were allowed to stay since their friends were here.

After a little bit of silence, Sonic suddenly asks, "Shadow...what's going on between you and Dusk?"

"We're just friends..." Shadow gruffly replies.

"It looked to me like there's more than just friendship between the two of you when I got to the Dragon's remains. Shadow, there was more behind that hug I saw you give her."

Shadow glances over at Sonic, knows that he won't give up, and sighs. "Fine...if you must know, I really like Dusk." he says simply.

"By 'really like', you mean you want her to be your girlfriend?"

A silent nod is Sonic's answer.

"Have you told her that yet?"

"Yea, when I found her after she destroyed the Egg-Dragon."

"Is the feeling mutual?"

Again Shadow nods, "She said it to me before you and Amy arrived. She whispered a weak 'I love you' and I said that I loved her too."

Sonic gives the black hedgehog a little bit of a smile and suddenly pats Shadow on the back. "Way to go dude."

Shadow has a curious look in his eyes as he glances at the blue hedgehog, "What, a congratulation? No snippy taunt or remark?"

"Nope." Sonic replies while leaning back in his chair, "No reason for me to taunt you about finding someone you love...I'm actually glad you found someone. No-one can go through life alone...it just isn't possible."

"And since when did you become so in-tune with love? You're always running away from it."

"You mean Ames? Nah dude, you've got it all wrong. She loves me and I actually love her back...a lot."

"Then why do you keep running from her?"

Sonic sighs before answering, using a sigh that meant his heart was growing heavy. "I'm doing it for her own safety...if Eggman found out that I actually let Ames be my girlfriend, then he'd go after her just to get to me...and I can't stand the thought of that at all. So the only way to keep her safe is to run from her." He pauses, "I know it looks like I'm being mean, or I'm just afraid to let her get close, but I'm really just worried for her safety."

Shadow waits a couple seconds before speaking up, "You keep running away like that, and your chances for a happy life might just get left behind."

"I know..." Sonic replies, "I know..."

The two stopped their conversation as the remainder of their friends came pouring into the waiting room, with three extra faces in the mix...Cream, Cheese, and Vanilla.

The large crowd waits around for roughly ten minutes before a human doctor approaches them. "Am I to guess that you all are here for Amy and Dusk's diagnosis?"

The crowd nods in unison.

"Very well, and it is my pleasure to say that both Roses are fine." A loud cheer is heard from each Mobian, Shadow included. Once he calms them down, the doctor continues, "The only symptom Amy has is a large headache, but Dusk is the real miracle case...I saw what she did thanks to the news, and, I'll be honest...she couldn't have survived that, but all she has is a little stiffness in the joints and a headache like Amy...its absolutely amazing."

At that everyone began cheering again, relieved beyond words that their heroic purple friend was going to be fine. They all quieted down as both Roses came out of the hallway and gave a big smile to all of their friends.

"Way to go Dusk! You not only destroyed the Egg-Dragon, but you also got to live to talk about it!" Sonic exclaimed.

The rest of their friends also give her some form of congratulations over the next few minutes, ending once Amy says, "Yup...the world's safe, Eggman's super weapons are destroyed, we're all okay...it looks like the only bad thing that happened is that Eggman got away."

Instantly Dusk began to chortle with laughter, earning confused looks from everyone present.

"What's so funny about Eggman getting away?" Shadow asks.

"Because he didn't get away!" Dusk exclaimed through her laughter, confusing her friends even more. "You see I..."

* * *

With a fair amount of grunting, Eggman manged to break open the door on his personal escape pod, allowing him freedom from his three bumbling assistants.

"Finally!" he exclaims while stepping out into open air, "Now that I'm here at my back-up headquarters I can..." Eggman's sentence is cut off when he hears someone yell, "Freeze!" which was accompanied by the clicking sounds of guns being cocked.

He looks around to see that he was surrounded by at least fifty GUN soldiers, all of them aiming their guns at him.

"Eggman you are under arrest." says the GUN general as he walks up and hancuffs the genius. "Some genius you are...what kind of evil scientist programs his escape pod to land in the training field at Prison Island?"

Eggman says nothing verbally, but begins thinking a barrage of curses at his rotten luck. He doesn't resist at all as the general begins guiding him into the base, leaving the other soldiers to take care of the robots and imp that were still in the pod.

* * *

"You did what?!" The fifteen Mobians and one human ask in astonishment when Dusk finishes her explanation.

Dusk had a smirk of pure happiness stuck to her face. "That's right...before I rammed the Egg-Battleship into the Egg-Dragon, a gave the computer a command that changed the landing location of Eggman's escape pod from his back-up base to Prison Island. He won't be causing anymore trouble for a long, long time."

Instantly Amy let out a squeal of delight, "Dusk you are just...the most amazing sister in the history of sisters!" she exclaimed before catching the purple hedgehog in a bear hug.

The doctor immediately rushed off to spread the news, but all of their friends came over and hoisted Dusk into the air, Amy was lifted up soon after, shouting congratulations and celebrating that Eggman was behind bars at long last.

The two Roses burst into a fit of the giggles at all of this attention, happy beyond words that they were together and Eggman was out of the picture.

Finally, after maybe a good five minutes of this celebration, the sisters were set down and most of the crowd departed to help with spreading the news. Only Dusk, Amy, Sonic, and Shadow stayed behind in the waiting room.

"Well Dusk...if for some reason, anyone had a doubt that you've changed sides after all of this, hearing that you are responsible for putting Eggman behind bars will surely fix that." Sonic said, playfully ruffling Dusk's hair in the process. She squeaked a little and pushed his arm away with a couple laughs.

"That's right Dusk...you're a hero now." Shadow adds then glances over at Sonic. Seeing that he wasn't getting ready to say anything, Shadow gave him a sharp nudge in the ribs with his elbow.

"Ow! Shadow!"

"Sonic...isn't there something you should say to Amy?"

"Yea, umm...Ames?" Sonic asks, making sure he had her attention, "Now that Eggman's gone, I'm comfortable with saying that I...I love you."

Those last three words struck Amy right in the heart. "Wh-what was that Sonic?" she asked.

"I love you Amy...I have for a long time, but I kept running away because I didn't want Eggman to find out about it and use you to get to me. But now that he's out of the picture..." Sonic's sentence cuts off when Amy jumps into his arms.

"Whisk me away Sonic...off to someplace romantic..." she says in a dreamy voice.

"Its a little late tonight...how about I just take you with me on a quick run?" Sonic asks to the hedgehog in his arms. "I promise...romantic place tomorrow."

"Deal."

Sonic looks from the pink hedgehog in his arms to Shadow. He gives the black hedgehog a quick wink before walking out the front door, then speeding away at his max speed once he passes the automatic doors.

"Well...guess Amy's dream has finally come true...Sonic is hers." Dusk said, watching where her sister and Sonic were standing just a moment ago. She starts walking past Shadow for the door, but stops when he takes her hand.

"Dusk..." he says, getting her to turn towards him, "Maybe...if you didn't have anything planned for tomorrow...we could..."

He stops when Dusk suddenly says, "Shadow, of course I'll go out with you, but maybe not tomorrow...those two near-death experiences have left me wanting to take a nice long nap. Maybe the day after?"

"Sure. When should I come by?"

"Make it eleven, I'll be up by then."

"Alright, I'll be there." He says before quickly leaning in and placing a kiss on her cheek.

"Shadow...that's really nice, but..." Dusk says as he pulls away, "This is how you kiss someone you love."

Not a second was able to pass before her lips pressed against Shadow's. Despite being caught off-guard from her sudden affection, Shadow soon returns her kiss and gently wraps his arms around her waist. Dusk complies by leaning forward a little and wrapping her arms around Shadow's neck.

Dusk was treasuring every moment of her first kiss...how firm but gentle Shadow's arms were around her waist, how soft his black fur felt on her arms, how gently his lips fell against hers, it was all amazing...she really had found true love with Shadow the Hedgehog.

After maybe fifteen seconds, the two separate and look deeply into the eyes of the other...Dusk watching his strong, comforting crimson-red irises and Shadow watching her soft, gentle dull-blue irises.

"I love you." they said in unison. Shadow gave another warm smile to the purple hedgehog before lifting her into his arms.

Dusk's cheeks turned a color identical to Shadow's red highlights as the Ultimate Life-Form carried her out the front door of the hospital and then skating towards Amy's apartment.

Dusk sighed and snuggled closer to Shadow's chest. She couldn't possibly have been happier...Eggman was behind bars, the world was safe, she was finally going to be accepted, and best of all...Shadow the Hedgehog was her boyfriend...

The purple hedgehog sighed again as she rested her cheek against his shoulder, finding that it was surprisingly comfortable. That, combined with her tiredness and the gentle, rhythmic motion of Shadow skating caused her to fall asleep.

Shadow felt another warm smile come across his face when he saw that Dusk was peacefully sleeping in his arms. He continued on to Amy's apartment in silence, then used a small Chaos Control to teleport the two inside. Like before when her powers went bezerk, the Chaos Control flash didn't disturb Dusk's sleep at all.

Shadow carried Dusk into her room, set her onto the bed, and took off her skates. As he turned to leave, Shadow noticed a couple things on her nightstand...that green crystal (that was still glowing) and the white rose he left for her when she was in the hospital.

The umber hedgehog sighed a little at the memories that those items represented, then left her room and Chaos Controlled away in the hall.

He wasn't gone for long though...a couple minutes after he left, Shadow returned, set two more gifts on the nightstand, and left again.

A couple hours after he left, Dusk woke up a result of the city lights coming in through the window. She sighed and got out of bed to close the window, then changed into her pajamas and headed back to bed.

Before falling asleep again, Dusk glanced at her memoirs and smiled...then noticed that their number had increased. She sighed when she saw the two new ones, then closed her eyes and fell asleep again.

Her white rose had gotten two new roses to keep it company...one had petals in a midnight purple color, and the other had petals a deep red color at the edge which darkened to black as it got closer to the stem.

**

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**

And there you have it...the touching ending to 'Dusk Sets'. I had the basis for this chapter floating around in my mind for the past week or so, and I'm pleased to say that it came out better than I could've possibly hoped. I've also found a pretty good song to act as a theme for this chapter..."Dear My Friend" from Sonic Unleashed. If you havn't heard it, there's a link on my profile page that will play it for you, its in the media section.

**Again, thanks for sticking around to read this whole story and I hope you enjoyed the ending!**


	30. Epilogue: Moving On

**Here is the true final chapter of Dusk Sets, and what better way to usher in a new year than to end a great story with a look at the future? Hope all of you are ready for 2009! I'll go ahead and let you read the last chapter with just this to say...**

**I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or any other related characters, all are owned by SEGA/Sonic Team. The only character I do own is Dusk Rose.**

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Epilogue: Moving On

Eggman sat on the bed in his cell, grumbling and cursing at the fact that he was finally caught. Three weeks he had spent in his cell, three whole weeks of confinement, and he loathed every second of it.

Part of his grumbling was due in part for the malfunction of his escape pod. It was supposed to have taken him to a back-up base, but instead it landed right in the middle of the GUN training fields...right as a whole platoon of soldiers were prepping for their training.

As he laid on the bed, cursing his bad luck, a sudden clanging at the cell bars accompanied by the guard saying, "Eggman...visitor." drew his attention. The genius turned around and saw Dusk, of all people, standing there; an unamused look her face and her arms crossed over her chest.

"Dusk!" he exclaims while hurrying over to the bars. "It is about time you showed up. So what is the plan for getting me out of here?"

"Plan? What plan?" Dusk asks while raising an eyebrow, "Your fat butt isn't going anywhere with my help."

"W-What? Did you forget that..."

"Shut it." Dusk said with a little anger in her voice, cutting Eggman off, "For a genius you sure are an idiot. I'm never helping you again. The only reason I even bothered to come here and see you is to ask why? Why did you lie to me?"

"Why? It doesn't matter whether I told you the truth or not, you should still serve me since I created you!"

"You know what Eggman? You really aren't a genius after all. You thought that I was just like your robots...supposed to follow any order without question, regardless of the consequences. Why can't you see that I'm not a robot? I'm a living being, with emotions and feelings. The reason I left you is because I overheard you and your idiot assistants talking about the real truth. That was what made me change over to the real good side." She pauses to put a hand over her heart, "But when I heard you say that I was just some weapon to you...that tore away in here. I trusted you like a father, but when I heard that...all of that trust fell away."

She pauses again, "Eggman...I absolutely hate you. I hate you so much for lying to me and taking advantage of me. I'm not some robot, I'm a living, breathing girl...with emotions and innocence that you took full advantage of. At first I thought that you cared about me, but when I heard the truth I knew that you didn't care at all. Now I'm returning the favor...I am not a Robotnik anymore...I am a Rose and you can rot in that cell for all I care. Take a good look at me Eggman...you are never going to see me again." With that Dusk turns and walks away, leaving Eggman standing there with a stunned look on his face.

"And by the way," Dusk suddenly called back, "Your pod didn't malfunction, I reprogrammed it to take you here. Get over it." She continues on down the hall, not bothering to turn back towards her 'creator'.

As the clinking of her Extreme Gear on the metal floor faded away, Eggman let out a heavy sigh before climbing back onto his bed...and a tiny tear snuck out of his eye as he realized how foolish he really was.

* * *

A week has passed since Dusk had went to go see Eggman, and ever since then she had been cheerier. Instead of dwelling on what she did when she was a Robotnik, Dusk was now looking forward to her future as a Rose...and not having the public hate her anymore played a role in cheering up the purple hedgehog too.

It was a slightly chilly winter evening, but the windows were shut and the heating was on in Amy's apartment, keeping the purple hedgehog nice and warm. Amy was out on a date with Sonic, off to go see a Crush 40 concert in Central City. Sure it was over 600 miles away from Station Square, but that was barely a minute's run for the blue hedgehog.

They offered to take her along, but Dusk politely declined. She was a big Crush 40 fan, but having to skate for 600 miles through freezing temperatures kept the purple hedgehog at home...she hates being cold.

Dusk was tidying up a little, just sorting through the messy pile of magazines on the coffee table and tossing away empty envelopes that were left on the end tables. Just after tossing a handful of garbage into the trash, a sudden knocking sound from the front door caught her attention.

Curious as to who would come here this late when it was so cold outside, Dusk hurried over and opened it to see a Shadow on the other side, his body was shivering and there was plenty of snow sticking to his quills...odd because it wasn't snowing outside and hadn't snowed for a couple days.

She didn't have time to ponder the weather though, Dusk quickly grabbed Shadow by the hand and lead him over to the couch. Once her boyfriend was sitting, Dusk quickly put a blanket over him before hurrying into the kitchen to make some nice warm soup.

As the food was cooking, Dusk asked the obvious question, "Where were you Shadow? And why is there snow in your fur?"

"I just got back from a small town in Blue Ridge Zone."

"Blue Ridge Zone?!" Dusk repeated in shock, "That place has been pummeled by a blizzard for days! What could possibly have dragged you all the way out there?"

"Its a bit of a surprise..." Shadow replies, a tone in his voice suggesting that he'd like to change the subject.

"Alright, if you say so...hey, did you hear? Tails got some secret new job at Wright Aerospace."

"The giant plane company?" Shadow asks, making sure he heard right.

"The same one...he wasn't allowed to tell us what it was, but whatever they're building, it must be big for them to call in Tails for help."

Shadow grunts a little to show he understood. "So how has Amy been?"

"Amy? She's been spending plenty of time with her beloved Sonic. The two left to go see a Crush 40 concert at Central City. They won't be back until tomorrow though, the concert ends at like...11:30 tonight, so they also rented a hotel room."

"Single or double bed?"

Dusk laughs as she pours the soup into a bowl, "I'm guessing its got two beds since Sonic's the one who made the reservations, but you never know...he might've gotten a single."

The purple hedgehog slowly leaves the kitchen with the bowl of soup in hand. She hands it over to Shadow, who promptly begins eating the warm, home-cooked food. Once the first spoonful is swallowed, Shadow releases a pleased sigh at both the delicious taste of the soup and at how warm it was. "This is great Dusk!" he compliments before swallowing another spoonful.

Dusk giggles a little, "Thanks, I cooked it myself. Its not really all that much though...just some spare veggies in the fridge, water, and a little broth."

They don't say anything else until Shadow finishes the soup, which only took a couple minutes. Dusk puts the bowl into the sink to be washed later, then returns to the umber hedgehog. She slips under the blanket and snuggles up close to his left side. "You don't mind?"

"Why would I mind having such a cute girl try to keep me warm?"

Dusk blushes at her boyfriend's words and snuggles a little closer, wrapping an arm around his back in the process. "Did you know that Blaze has taken a break from her princess duties? She wants to experience normal life for a little bit and moved in with Silver for a few weeks."

Shadow rolls his eyes, "Bet the guards weren't happy about that."

"From what Blaze told me, they put up quite a fight trying to keep her in the palace...but she is the princess after all." Dusk pauses, "Although I think she only used the 'experience-normal-life-to-be-a-better-ruler' thing as an excuse for a vacation from her princess duties."

"Don't blame her though...those koalas are so strict with protocol and schedules. I don't know how she can stand those guys."

Dusk giggles a little more before asking, "So have you caught up with Rouge recently?"

"No...why?"

"She pulled a couple strings and got a whole GUN platoon to guard the Master Emerald while she and Knuckles go treasure hunting. It took a little convincing, but Knuckles gave in when she said that guards were given direct orders to not touch the Master Emerald at all...straight from the GUN head himself."

"I wonder what those two hot heads are going to do if they do find some treasure..."

"I bet I know...they're going to argue over who gets what."

Shadow gives Dusk a light smile and slips an arm around her waist. "And what has the great Dusk Rose been up to?"

Dusk blushes a little from the wording of Shadow's question. "To be honest...nothing really. I went to go see Eggman and tell him that he's no longer in any part of my life about a week ago, and ever since then I've been feeling great...but nothing besides that."

The two sit there in silence for maybe a minute before Shadow speaks up again. "Hey Dusk? That surprise reason I braved a blizzard to go to Blue Ridge Zone?" He pauses while reaching into his quills and removing a small, midnight-blue jewelry box, "Here it is...for you."

Dusk takes the box from him and opens it, then gasps at what was inside. It was a small pendent...a small round pendent that gently tapered down to a soft point in one direction. The other direction lead into a silver holster that had a small loop on it, through which was a silver chain. The pendent was beautiful to Dusk not only because of its flawlessly rounded shape, but also its color...a dark, midnight-purple with flecks of black in it.

Shadow smiles at her reaction and gently takes the pendent out of its box, "This is a shadow-diamond and its very rare to find one of this quality. Almost all of the ones discovered aren't even worth turning into kiddy prizes...only two have been discovered that are jewel-level quality." He pauses while leaning over to her ear. "That one is the second." He adds in a whisper.

"You really braved a blizzard just to get me something valuable?"

"No. I braved a blizzard to get something as unique and special as the girl who will wear it."

Dusk gives Shadow a smile that was saying 'thank you' and lets some tears form in her eyes while Shadow clasps the pendent around her neck. The pendent was absolutely beautiful on her...it matched her fur shade, complimented her eyes. blended perfectly into her outfit, and beautifully hung about an inch from the base of her neck.

"Shadow...you're the best."

Shadow gave Dusk a smile while wiping her tears away. "Nah...you are."

The purple hedgehog giggles a little before leaning in for a kiss, which was happily returned by the umber hedgehog. After maybe ten or twelve seconds, the two separated and Dusk rested her head against Shadow's shoulder.

The two cuddled a little bit before Shadow spoke up again. "Hey Dusk?" he asked to get her attention, "Once the weather gets warm enough, say mid-March, would you like to go on a trip with me? For maybe a week or so?"

Dusk's eyes brightened at the idea of traveling with Shadow and she eagerly responded, "Of course I would! Where to?"

"Don't know, I'll take you to wherever you want to go."

"Sorry to disappoint you Shadow, but...I don't know where I want to go. My whole life I've been fighting either you guys or Eggman. I've never had a chance to study the different countries and such."

"Well, March is still a couple months away...take your time before choosing someplace, its not like I have to know where you want to go right this second." Shadow says before drawing Dusk a little closer and nestling his muzzle into her hair. "I can wait for your choice."

Dusk sighs before replying with, "Alright...a whole week in some foreign country with you...I can hardly wait!" she squeals.

Shadow lets out a couple laughs at his girlfriend's enthusiasm. He didn't say it aloud, but he was looking forward to it too.

**

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That's the epilogue...it has done its job of showing what everyone is up to now that Eggman is gone. But it has also served another purpose...

**...setting things up for the sequel. That's right! I'm planning a sequel! I've got no idea as to when it will premiere, but hopefully it'll start before June. If any of you want to be alerted when I do start the sequel, just say so in a review or PM and you'll be alerted once the sequel starts. Remember, every ending is just a new beginning (winks).**

**Seriously, its been awesome writing this story...I myself am amazed at how much Dusk has changed since I first created her in my mind so long ago...I've recreated her so many times before this story premiered, and even when that happened, Dusk still continued to change from my original plan. If you'll pardon the metaphor, I'm so happy and proud at what she's bloomed into...a truly beautiful rose.**

**Well, I shouldn't draw this farewell statement out anymore than I need to, so here's my last words...It really has been fun writing this story, and I do look forward to the sequel! I hope that all of you are looking forward to it as well!**

**Until the sequel premieres, farewell!**


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